McDonald's Lawsuit.
still from the McDonald's commercial
In March of 2017, I was alerted to the fact that McDonald's had used my mural without my consent by Jaime Roja of Brooklyn Street Art. It was in a video for their Dutch McDonald's campaign featuring the Bushwick Collective's Joe Figuro. Joe allegedly got paid for the use of many artist's work without their permission or release.
There are currently two groups of street artists suing McDonald's in response to this ad campaign.
I do not in any way condone the use of my artwork to sell McDonald's fast food. McDonald's corporation has a terrible history of labor abuses, has fought against their workers unionizing, has paid their workers a less than livable wage, has failed to protect workers from sexual harassment on the job, has promoted diabetes & obesity inducing food in low income areas & in ads that target children, has refused to discontinue the use of styrofoam in it's packaging despite enormous pressure from environmental groups, has contributed to the destruction of the Amazon's Rainforests... the list of grievances is quite long. The entirety of their corporation is diametrically at odds with my entire mission as a street artist to promote human rights & climate justice.
The mural that was used in this ad campaign was used without my permission or knowledge. The mural that was used was not painted as part of the Bushwick Collective but was a private commission. I own the rights to this mural and using it is a violation of my rights as an artist. The mural in question is a portrait of Ta'Kaiya Blaney, an Indigenous Youth Activist from the Sliammon Nation in so called British Columbia who also did not agree to have her image used to sell products that put people at risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
to read a comprehensive list of McDonald's egregious practices, please click through this link: http://www.corp-research.org/mcdonalds