The Beastie Boys have won the latest round in the battle over “Girls.”
The California toy company GoldieBlox has removed their parody of the NYC rap group’s song “Girls” from a viral ad campaign after the tune’s inclusion kicked off a string of potentially messy litigation.
For the ad in question, GoldieBlox changed the chauvinistic lyrics of the 1986 song to reflect and bolster young girls’ interest in science, building and engineering.
The two surviving B-Boys Mike D and Ad Rock released an open letter pointing out that they’re firmly against commercial usage of their songs and threatening legal action. The letter also praised the ad’s message, however, with the B-Boys saying, “We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering.”
GoldieBlox beat them to the legal punch, issuing a lawsuit stating that the ad’s version of the song was a parody and protected as fair use.
However, in light of the Beasties’ open letter, GoldieBlox have reversed their decision, bringing the controversy to a close.
In addition to dropping the song from the commercial, the toy company issued a friendly statement on Wednesday. “We don”t want to fight with you,” the open letter read. “We love you and we are actually huge fans. In addition, we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team.”
We don”t want to spend our time fighting legal battles,” GoldieBlox concluded. “We want to inspire the next generation. We want to be good role models. And we want to be your friends.”
A new version of the ad, featuring jaunty instrumental music popped up immediately.
Watch the new Beastie Boys-free ad above.