McDonald's is being accused of copying a cult animator's work in one of its ads
Cyriak Harris, a surrealist British animator with a cult following, has accused McDonald's of copying one of his videos for an ad campaign.
The "Vacas" spot, for McDonald's in Latin America, features a herd of cows dancing in a field.
On Tuesday, Harris tweeted the resemblance between the scene from the ad and one of his own videos, "cows & cows & cows," which also depicts cows bopping away in a field.
One of Harris' Twitter followers pointed out that a person, purportedly from the Visual FX firm behind the ad, posted the video to a forum and mentioned they were inspired by the animator's work:
Cyriak's "cows & cows & cows" video has notched up more than 37 million views on YouTube since it was posted in 2010:
This is not the first time McDonald's or one of its agencies has been accused of copying ideas from previously-published works.
Last year, McDonald's was forced to apologize to a pair of freelancers who accused the fast food chain of stealing their idea - a montage of a mock engagement with a burrito - in a Twitter marketing campaign. McDonald's Twitter photos also carried a mock engagement theme and strongly resembled the freelancers' images.
McDonald's apologized and removed the photos from its Twitter feed.