Global fashion retailer H&M has been left red-faced after being caught out using a song in an Instagram ad that it claimed “was specifically produced for us” by the musician who made it.
H&M received multiple requests from Instagrammers asking what the song was in its ad, with the retailer telling them that the song did not have a name and “was specifically produced for us”.
Aussie music producer Mike Katz (pictured above) – whose music alias is Harvey Sutherland – chimed in yesterday morning, claiming the song’s name was Bamboo, and was in fact his. Katz proceeded to call out H&M for using it without permission.
Funnily enough, it turns out Katz also a lawyer at Melbourne firm Studio Legal (according to his LinkedIn profile), which mainly works in the areas of intellectual property, media, entertainment, commercial, and technology law.
Katz’s social media shaming of H&M led to a heap of people siding with the producer, leaving comments with the hashtag #payharvey.
H&M finally admitted its wrongdoing and issued an apology to Katz late yesterday.
“We apologise and have now removed content featuring the music from all of our social media accounts,” an H&M spokesperson told the ABC.
The incident comes after US rapper Eminem successfully sued a New Zealand political party for $535,639 for using his hit song Lose Yourself in an election advert last year.
