It could be said that Goldieblox was only fighting for feminism when they ripped off a Beastie Boys songs for their advertisement for intelligent toys for young girls. After all, the original Beastie Boys song isn’t exactly flattering to the female gender:
“Girls – to do the dishes / Girls – to clean up my room / Girls – to do the laundry / Girls – and in the bathroom / Girls — that’s all I really want is girls.”
The smart-toy innovators replace the lyrics with “Girls – to build the spaceship / Girls – to code the new app / Girls – to grow up knowing ; That they can engineer that / Girls — That’s all we really need is girls.”
While Goldieblox may seem like gender equality super-heroes, they nevertheless wronged the Beastie Boys in stealing their song.
To anybody who is familiar with the rude-boy-rockers, they know that the original song and its lyrics were deliberately ironic, but I suppose that goes without saying. What matters is how GoldieBlox handled the band when they were interrogated in their use of the song.
The band wrote a letter released Monday saying that they were “impressed by the creativity of the message “ of the Goldieblox video, but “make no mistake, your idea is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads … when we tried to simply ask how and why our song ‘Girls’ has been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US.”
I suppose when you believe your message is moral, it doesn’t matter who you have to step on to make it.
The ad might have an interesting idea in selling toys that appeal to girls who don’t want to be princesses and have tea-parties – though a lot of young girls do like those things – but stealing intellectual property to make your point is of course unjustified, or could be found to be so, as Goldieblox is going to a California federal court to get declaratory relief that the video is not copyright infringement, and may get some legal education of their own in the process.