This commercial has been getting a lot of attention this morning because the ad, which features Mary J. Blige singing, has been pulled.
While critics claim the ad is sterotypical of black people, Burger King claims they pulled the ad over music licensing issues.
Burger King said Tuesday the commercial was pulled because of a licensing concern. The company said it hopes to have the Blige “ads back on the air soon,” though a spokeswoman would not comment on whether they ads would be the same.
The spokeswoman also noted that other celebrities, including Salma Hayek and Jay Leno, also are advertising the snack wraps.
A rep for Blige did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What do you think of the ad? See anything wrong with it?
A New York production company has sued Mary J. Blige for copyright infringement, claiming the tune “Work It,” off her latest album, Growing Pains, was created by a producer who worked for the plaintiff at the time.
Dream Family Entertainment wants more than $2 million from the Grammy-winning songstress.
According to the complaint obtained by the New York Daily News, though producer Theron “Neef-U” Feemster wrote “Work It,” which was also heard behind Blige in an iPod commercial, his former employer owns the song.
“Mr. Feemster created the music while he was under contract with Dream Family. Dream Family then owned the music, yet the music was used without permission in a Mary J. Blige release recording,” the company’s attorney, Brian Caplan, told the newspaper.
“It was released as an album, a single and in a commercial.” He added that it’s unclear whether Blige knew that Feemster had no rights to work with “Work It.”
Mary J. Blige turned fairy godmother for one New York fan last week when she offered to help pay for a high-end designer dress.
The R&B star was shopping at the Diane Von Furstenberg store in downtown New York when she overheard a fellow customer complaining about the price of a dream dress she had put on hold.
At $900 the dress was $400 more than the cash-strapped shopper had expected, and so Blige stepped in to pay the difference.
The stunned buyer initially refused to accept Blige’s help, but when the Family Affair hitmaker said, “I know what it’s like to want something and not be able to have it,” and insisted on buying the garment, the happy shopper bagged her dress and then asked for Blige’s details so she could repay her.
But the generous singer said, “Just enjoy it. I’m blessed, so let me do this,” according to MTV News.
Mary J. Blige lost a lot of her friends when she gave up alcohol.
The star has battled both drug and alcohol addictions during her lengthy career, and decided to give up the party lifestyle after meeting her now-husband Kendu Isaacs in 2000.
Blige insists she had plenty of friends when she was going out and spending lots of money on drink, but when she became tee-total, all the people she considered close suddenly disappeared.
She says, “When I said I’m not drinking any more, I’m not hanging out any more – it was almost like people ran away from me. They just vanished, and it hurt me really, really bad because there was a point where I believed those people loved and liked me, I really did. And that’s devastation.”
Sarah Silverman, Amanda Peet, Anna Wintour, Bon Jovi, Chace Crawford, Christian Slater, Claire Danes, Clive Owen, Dita Von Teese, Emmy Rossum, Eva Mendes, Hilary Duff, Jerry Seinfeld, Lake Bell, Mary J. Blige, Michelle Monaghan, Mischa Barton, Molly Sims, and Sarah Michelle Gellar were all in attendance at the Gala last night.
