Following in the wake of Beach House getting ripped off in a television ad for Volkswagen and the John Butler Trio settling with Oikos Yoghurt over the theft of a riff; comes the discovery of a TGI Friday’s advert that’s riffing a little too closely on LCD Soundsystem
Pitchfork has turned up the latest ad campaign for the American restaurant chain, that advertises their ‘2 for $10’ menu over a track that has a passing similarity to “Daft Punk Are Playing At My House”, the break-0ut hit for James Murphy’s dance-punk outfit.
The opening track from LCD Soundsystem’s eponymous 2005 debut possesses the same cow-bell driven riffs and stuttered bass as the TGI Friday’s sound-alike; but is it a rip-off, or just another watered-down take on a popular genre that salesman are so found on using to sell their products?
There’s no denying that there’s a history for this kind of shonky plagiarism. Aside from the aforementioned Beach House and John Butler mimicry, the last year seen quite a few artists fall foul of ad agency’s crooked tactics.
The Grates labelled Weet Bix ‘jerks’ for re-recording their single without permission, while Canberra band Tonk also discovered earlier this year that popular US sitcom How I Met Your Mother had used one of their songs not once, but twice, without permission.
The recently confirmed to tour Sigur Rós have also been regularly plundered for commercials, prompting the Icelandic outfit to put together an exhaustive collection of ads that rip-off their celestial sounds for a blog post at their official website.
TGI Friday’s may not be the first perpetrators in this despicable trend (nor will they be the last), but what do you think? Are they consciously copying LCD Soundsystem to flog beer and buffalo wings? or is it just a coincidence?
You can compare and decide for yourselves below.
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