GoldieBlox Writes Open Letter to Beastie Boys, Removes "Girls" Parody from Ad

Photo by Phil Andelman

The war between the Beastie Boys and toy company GoldieBlox over the use of "Girls" in a video advertisement promoting the latter's toys entered its open letter phase this week, and a new O.L. from GoldieBlox suggests that the litigious dispute is coming to an end.

In a statement posted to GoldieBlox's website, the company says it's removed the song from the offending advertisement in question, and as of now it actually looks like the video has been taken down. The statement also notes that "we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team." They also address the reasons why they first filed a suit against the Beasties and apologize for the incident in general; the full statement is below.

Dear Adam and Mike,

We don’t want to fight with you. We love you and we are actually huge fans.

When we made our parody version of your song, ‘Girls’, we did it with the best of intentions. We wanted to take a song we weren’t too proud of, and transform it into a powerful anthem for girls. Over the past week, parents have sent us pictures and videos of their kids singing the new lyrics with pride, building their own Rube Goldberg machines in their living rooms and declaring an interest in engineering. It’s been incredible to watch.

Our hearts sank last week when your lawyers called us with threats that we took very seriously. As a small company, we had no choice but to stand up for ourselves. We did so sincerely hoping we could come to a peaceful settlement with you.

We want you to know that when we posted the video, we were completely unaware that the late, great Adam Yauch had requested in his will that the Beastie Boys songs never be used in advertising. Although we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect his wishes and yours.

Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video. 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. We want to inspire the next generation. We want to be good role models. And we want to be your friends.

Sincerely,

Debbie + Team GoldieBlox

via Larry Fitzmaurice