<nettime> Corporate Ad Mocking Burning Man's Corporate Influence Is So Accurate That Burning Man Might Sue

["Michael Gurstein" <gurstein@gmail.com>]

   http://sfist.com/2015/09/11/this_corporate_ad_mocking_burning_m.php


   A new advertisement that mocks Burning Man's corporate influences and
   was itself produced by sandwich company Quizno's (as a faux-installment
   of The Maze Runner movie franchise) is so meta and self-aware as to be
   nearly sentient. At once brilliant and sordid, this is the kind of
   meta-TV that David Foster Wallace warned us about, may he rest in
   peace. Oh, and perfectly completing the meta-mind-fuck of this whole
   episode, Burning Man officials are considering a lawsuit against
   Quizno's -- for commodifying its culture.

   As the Reno Gazette-Journal reports, Burning Man isn't very amused,
   perhaps because the ad strikes such a nerve. Spokesperson Jim Graham
   Burni says legal action is being considered because the video is theft
   of the event's intellectual property. "We are pretty proactive about
   protecting our 10 principles, one of which is decommodification,"
   Graham said. "We get a quite a number of requests each year from
   companies wanting to gift participants with their product or to capture
   imagery or video of their products at the event, and we turn them all
   down."

   Quizno's and Burning Man have not yet been in contact.

   "We'll be coordinating with our legal team to see what action we can
   take," Graham said. In the past, Burning Man has sued the Girls Gone
   Wild filmmakers on similar grounds and won.


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