Oh bullshit. All I did was try to interpret a quote from an article. ** Bricker **decided he wanted to play word games with it. I showed him that he could take his ball and go home, which he did. Guess what you can do with your ball? 
Context is everything in fair use.
As a commercial organisation I cannot simply take the work of another from whole cloth and alter a few words, the ‘empowerment’ aspect is nothing more than a smokescreen.
You only need look at the amount of adverts where rights have been purchased to see that.
You might also note that the BB song itself was a parody of typical rap lyrics, so I guess there is a certain amount of irony, and it seems Goldi have completely misunderstood the intent of that work.
…well the forum is called “In My Humble Opinion.” It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that I offered you my Humble Opinion. They didn’t use to allow debate in this forum. All you did was gainsay what someone else said. Then you used a cite I provided to make your own point. I don’t buy that this is legitimate parody. The intent wasn’t to offer social commentary. The intent is to sell more product.
I’m not a lawyer in the United States, and I don’t even live in the United States. My opinion, like anyone else’s opinion without a legal degree, isn’t worth much. The Goldieblox video doesn’t offer legitimate “commentary” IMHO. It is an advertisement. Something put together for the express purpose of making money, not social commentary. The original piece by the Beastie Boys was, in itself, IMHO, a parody on male youth culture. I think it clearly fails the commentary test. IMHO.
your laymen’s interpretation of the quote was incorrect. Bricker corrected you. That is the opposite of playing word games. And you are in the wrong forum if you want to “show people where they can take their ball.”
Another one eh? I didn’t realize **Bricker **actually had a fan club. Well that’s cool. But I think anyone reading that exchange will agree that he unduly jumped all over my shit for no reason. I don’t respond well to that. I don’t care who does it and I’m more than capable of dealing with anyone here including **Bricker **if I need to. I’d prefer not to if I don’t have to, but I won’t avoid it doing if they don’t give me a choice, which he didn’t.
IMHO the song on its own is quite clearly parody and has altered more than a “few words” from the original song. And I certainly support the concept of toys that encourage girls to become engineers, and I like the idea of linking the toys to storybooks that walk the kids through the first stage of building simple machines.
However, I agree that they undermine their own message quite badly by their actual product:
The song and their marketing bumf talks about how girls are given a small selection of girl-specific toys that are all pink and cutesy and involve puppies and ponies…and their response to this is to market a product at girls that is all pink and cutesy and involves puppies and ponies? Seriously, Goldieblox?
Why don’t they do these as gender-neutral products so that both boys and girls can use them. rather than perpetuating the stereotypes they’re so busy complaining about?
Goldie Blox may talk about fighting the “pink aisle” but their true target is the pathetic attempts at trying to market science toys to girls. Such efforts usually often involved putting out an inferior version of the ‘boys’ version of the product with a pink box (Bad Astronomer comments) or just trying to fool girls into science (The Mary Sue gives more examples from the same company)
Having pink stuff and ponies & puppies is not automatically bad, it is the fact that the idea of science being aimed at girls has been a poorly executed afterthought for ages (BeAmazing was so embarrassed by their girl-oriented product that they tried to hide the wand-carrying princess in the product photo). Often that abbreviates to rejecting the ‘pink aisle’. Personally I think the effort is worth making and while it may not be perfect there are better criticisms to make than try to point out petty color hypocrisies.
My original point was that you were in error, and you couldn’t credibly claim the error arose from the article you quoted, since its plain text did not support the interpretation that you gave it.
Ny new, additional point is that the possessive word your – as it appears in the phrase “your point” – is properly spelled Y-O-U-R. “You’re,” the word you offered up here, is the contraction of “you are.”
Which means, of course, that you’re in error.
Again.
LOL. If that’s what it takes to make your day Bricker, have a nice one.
“Anyone” reading, except the only people who have commented on the issue, who don’t seem to agree.
Are those people not True Scotsman?
What’s the matter dude. That wasn’t enough satisfaction for you? Too fucking bad because it will have to be.
Can’t really side with either party. GoldieBlox people are right that their song is a parody, but their being total dicks about it. They could do an end-around and do a “style parody” like Weird Al does, but then they wouldn’t get all this free pub.
I think the remaining Beastie Boys should officially endorse a competing product, maybe write a new song just for a commercial. There are a couple daughters between the guys.
I’m with the Beastie Boys on this one. It’s clearly not a parody. It’s a commercial, not an SNL skit.
I’m surprised at the poll results. It might be because the poll is so badly framed and worded. Of course GoldieBlox or anyone else should have the right to parody a song. However, that’s not the case here.
deltasigma, you’re wrong. Bricker is right. Don’t take it personally.
[sniff, wipes away tears of shame]. OK, thanks man.
This is fun. Anyone else?
Have you actually missed that the Beastie Boys have a policy – which is also stated in the will of deceased member Adam Yauch - that their work never be used in advertising. They have stated that they appreciate and endorse the content of the girls parody video. The ONLY issue is that Goldieblox used it to make an ad, so, “endorse a competing product” is not what they’re going to do.
The best news of this whole escapade is that buyers are stepping up to admit its a crappy toy.
Goldieblox posted on its blog today that they removed the song from the video and they are ending their lawsuit “as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from [Beastie Boys’s] legal team.”
Hmmph, they were never under threat in the first place, BB merely made an enquiry, its very much a half assed apology from Goldi, in fact it isn’t even that at all - they are now trying to appear magnanimous, my guess is that they really don’t want the image of legal predator, that just would not fit in with their marketing strategy. All that pink and pastel along with the purported worthiness of their cause would not sit well in a disputed legal action.
I also think they really do not want the crapshoot of a lawsuit, they are not quite as certain of their ground as perhaps Bricker has posited.
This is almost like stealing another kids lunch and then complaining to the principle that it was the victims fault because it was so attractive and tasty, then threatening to bring in the district schools board when the victims asks why, and finally offering to drop the whole thing if the victim would just not complain any more.
Never thought of BB being likely candidates for bullies, but this is exactly what has happened
The Goldieblox ad reminds me of another recent piece of high-grade marketing bullshit – that stupid Chipotlead that went viral a couple of months ago. At first glance it seems like a lovely commentary on the superiority of handmade local food over the processed crap that’s made by big food producers. Then you realize that it’s really just an ad for a Mexican fast food joint that sells pretty much the same processed crap as other fast food joints. At least Chipotle had the good grace to pay for the song they were using to push their burritos.
What a lovely new trend in advertising this is: Convincing consumers who are interested in social change to associate your brand with the good fight! You want to fight inequality in technical fields? Buy your daughter Goldieblox! You can spend money on crap and feel good about it!