Pop singer Ariana Grande is suing fashion retailer Forever 21 and the beauty company started by the daughters of Forever 21’s founder, Riley Rose, for their alleged unauthorized use of Grande’s name, image, likeness, and music in their recent campaigns. Grande claims that their marketing campaign violates the common law rights of publicity and her copyright and trademark rights under the Copyright Act and the Trademark Act, respectively. Ariana Grande is suing for ten million dollars for actual damages, disgorgement of Forever 21’s ill-gotten profits, and punitive damages in order to prevent Forever 21 and Riley Rose from violating Grande’s personal and intellectual property rights.
This lawsuit follows a failed collaboration between Ariana Grande and the fashion retailer, where Grande ultimately denied the collaboration because Forever 21 refused to pay what she demanded based on her social media reach and stature. These negotiations took place around December 2018 and January 2019. The endorsement deal sought with Ariana Grande centered around social media marketing, including Twitter and Instagram posts and stories. According to Grande’s complaint against Forever 21, Forever 21 sought Grande’s endorsement of its clothing and products, hoping to benefit from her celebrity and influence. However, Forever 21 was unwilling to pay “the fair market value for a celebrity of Ms. Grande’s stature.”
Following the failed collaboration, intent on pushing forward and avoiding irrelevance, Forever 21 and Riley Rose released a look-alike marketing campaign in January and February 2019. Grande claims such campaign constitutes a blatant and willful violation of her rights of publicity, as well as, her copyrights and trademarks. In particular, the campaign capitalized on the success of Grande’s album “Thank U, Next” by publishing at least thirty images and videos which Grande claims misappropriate her name, image, likeness, and music “in order to create the false perception of her endorsement.”
As part of this campaign, Forever 21 hired a “look-alike model” posed in “clothing and accessories that resemble clothing worn in Ms. Grande’s music videos and that the public immediately associates with Ms. Grande.” Not only did the model appear similar to Grande, she also wore a hairstyle similar to the one Grande wore in the “7 Rings” music video and dressed in a top designed to look like that worn by Grande in numerous well-known photographs. To make matters more apparent, Forever 21 had previously posted some of these well-known photographs to its Instagram feed. Even more obviously, some of the posts included lyrics from some of Grande’s songs, such as “Gee thanks, just bought it!”
While there is an obvious resemblance, and it can be assumed that Forever 21 posted the images realizing the resemblance, Ariana Grande does not hold a monopoly on the style of her “7 Rings” music video nor on her personal style. However, Grande bases her first claim for relief in California Civil Code § 3344, which prohibits knowing use of another’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, in any manner, for commercial purposes without such person’s consent. This appears to be precisely what Forever 21 has done in misappropriating Grande’s likeness in this manner. Ariana Grande also claims the defendants have violated her common law right of publicity, that is, her right to publicize her name and likeness, including for endorsement deals. In addition, Grande claims trademark infringement for defendants’ use of “ARIANA GRANDE” and “ARIANA GRANDE THANK U, NEXT,” and copyright infringement for their use of her images, lyrics, and audiovisual clips from her copyrighted songs.
In response to this campaign, Ariana Grande filed the present lawsuit. Moreover, Grande claims the campaign is Forever 21’s attempt to remain relevant, especially amid claims that Forever 21 might potentially be filing for bankruptcy. Forever 21 released a statement saying “Forever 21 does not comment on pending litigation as per company policy.” However, Forever 21 did state “while we dispute the allegations, we are huge supporters of Ariana Grande and expressed their hopefulness “that we will find a mutually agreeable resolution and can continue to work together in the future.”