The Rolling Stone Mag reporting about a television commercial for Fiat starring Jennifer Lopez has triggered a copyright dispute involving Bronx-based graffiti crew TATS whose work is featured prominently in the ad.
The commercial, titled “My World,” features Lopez and a series of images intended to evoke the Bronx borough of New York, where she grew up, including a break dancer, a man drumming on an overturned pail and a colorful mural that reads “I Heart the Bronx.” The muralists, TATS Cru, say the image is copyrighted and was used without permission.
“That’s enough,” crew member Wilfredo Feliciano told the New York Times. “This has happened to us in the past, and it’s not cool. We had to do something about it.” Stacey Richman, the graffiti artists’ lawyer, said that the advertising agency and Chrysler, a subsidiary of the Fiat group, have yet to respond.