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Burning Man may sue Quiznos over lighthearted parody ad

Burning Man may sue Quiznos over lighthearted parody ad
“I just saw a Google exec fire-jousting with P Diddy…!”

While you wouldn’t think The Burning Man festival could still be mined for parody after having just wrapped its 29th annual installment, some impressively sly copywriters at Quiznos have just cooked up a lighthearted (and not cheaply produced) faux movie trailer that effortlessly skewers the weeklong “Utopian” arts showcase.

Related: Welcome to the Gayborhood at Burning Man, 2015

“Out of the Maze and into the Playa” was posted to YouTube with little to no fanfare earlier this week, one day after Burning Man ran its course on Monday. The plot finds a cadre of hip, slightly airy young people sent to Burning Man as a test of their mettle. “Welcome to Burning Man,” crows a gruff Burner as the characters begin their jiggly journey. “The world outside is hanging on by a very thin, non-GMO, cruelty-free, oragnic hemp thread. Beyond this tent flap lies the beginning of your new lives as Burners.”

Well, in a news nugget that might make actual Burners feel even queasier than already do today, USA Today reports that Burning Man organizers aren’t particularly good sports when The Man in question decided to do a little burning back.

Related: It’s Flashy, It’s Techy, It’s Super Gay — It’s “Burning Man: The Musical”

Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham claims they take issue with the clip and are strongly considering taking legal action — not, he says, because of the breezy mockery it makes of the 70,000-person event, but because the video (which includes a human car wash, a unicorn car that shoots fireballs, back rubs, and some dippy hippies wearing backpacks) is stealing the event’s intellectual property rights.

“We are pretty proactive about protecting our 10 principles,” Graham officiously claims, in a statement that doesn’t altogether jibe with the free-for-all spirit of the event. “We get 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.”

Watch “Burn Trial – Out of the Maze and into the Playa” below:

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