Cadillac unveiled its new livery on Sunday for the upcoming F1 season. A Super Bowl commercial blasted the new colour scheme in front of millions. Not everyone, though, was happy with the stunt. Hollywood director Michael Bay has already hauled the team into court ahead of the commercial’s release; Cadillac allegedly approached Bay early on to direct and then “stole his ideas.”
The Michael Bay team claims Cadillac “stole Bay’s ideas and work for the commercial without paying for them.” A spokesperson told Rolling Stone: “They (Cadillac, ed.) were planning to cheat him the whole time. They wanted a ‘Michael Bay’ ad for a bargain.” The director is seeking at least $1.5 million in damages. He and his crew say they “worked day and night to prepare the production,” but were ultimately not involved in the project.
Cadillac denies
Cadillac denies all the allegations and stresses the creative concept had been developed before any talks with Michael Bay took place. A Cadillac spokesman responded, visibly upset: “Michael Bay is a cinematic genius and we spoke with him about directing our Super Bowl commercial,” the defence begins. “But after two meetings it became clear he could not meet our schedule and there was no way forward. It is unclear why he is making this claim, since the concept and creative approach had already been developed and we were only considering him as the director.”
“It is also unusual to raise this now, given the commercial has not even been released,” the statement continued. “We are confident this will be resolved appropriately. We still admire Michael Bay’s creative genius and would welcome working with him again in the future.”
