McDonald's is being accused of copying a cult animator's work in one of its ads (MCD)
Cyriak Harris, a surrealist British animator with a cult following, has accused McDonald's of copying one of his videos for an ad campaign.
The "Vacas" spot, for McDonald's in Latin America, features a herd of cows dancing in a field.
http://www.vimeo.com/video/176208286
Width: 640px
Height: 360px
On Tuesday, Harris tweeted the resemblance between the scene from the ad and one of his own videos, "cows & cows & cows," which also depicts cows bopping away in a field.
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/760435431943053312
Wonder how much @McDonalds paid someone to copy my video. I didn't even get paid to make the original pic.twitter.com/XGWjHQq0j6
One of Harris' Twitter followers pointed out that a person, purportedly from the Visual FX firm behind the ad, posted the video to a forum and mentioned they were inspired by the animator's work:
NewTekA user in the "NewTek" forum commented that the cows reminded them of Cyriak's video.
NewTek"Leandropedrouzo," who claimed to be from Juan Solo VFX Studio (a 3d animator called Leandro Pedrouzo is listed on the company's website), responded: "Actually Cyriak was the reference for this Spot. The director and I wanted to go a bit more realistic but the client loved the ref."
NewTekMcDonald's and Juan Solo VFX Studio did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
Cyriak's "cows & cows & cows" video has notched up more than 37 million views on YouTube since it was posted in 2010:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/FavUpD_IjVY
Width: 560px
Height: 315px
This is not the first time McDonald's or one of its agencies has been accused of copying ideas from previously-published works.
Last year, McDonald's was forced to apologize to a pair of freelancers who accused the fast food chain of stealing their idea — a montage of a mock engagement with a burrito — in a Twitter marketing campaign. McDonald's Twitter photos also carried a mock engagement theme and strongly resembled the freelancers' images.
McDonald's apologized and removed the photos from its Twitter feed.
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