Bronx Graffiti Group Claims Fiat Used Mural In Commercials Without Permission
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Never mind the fake ad, now a real mural is the latest headache for Fiat.
Last week, the car company's commercials, featuring Jennifer Lopez driving her new Fiat 500 from Manhattan to The Bronx, came under fire after it was revealed her scenes were actually filmed in Los Angeles.
However, a portion of the commercial was actually filmed in J. Lo's old neighborhood and shows flashes of a copyrighted mural in Parkchester by the group TATS Cru.
"Somebody posted it on our Facebook," Wilfredo "Bio" Feliciano, a founding member of the crew, told 1010 WINS."You could see the car driving towards it and at a different angle driving away from it and we were like, 'Alright, that wasn't just a random, casual drive-by, that was actually set up two different shots for it.'"
The "I Love The Bronx" mural is located under the No. 6 train station.
"If you look at the commercial without it, it could be Any City, USA," Feliciano said. "That mural just establishes that it's here in the Bronx."
The graffiti artists claim they never gave Fiat permission to use their work and are now demanding payment.
"This is a huge corporation who tried to sell to people in the Bronx using images from the Bronx but yet contributed nothing to the Bronx," Feliciano said. "We created this, we've lived here our entire life, we paint these murals. You can't just come and take our stuff, use it, make money off of it and ignore us."
The Smoking Gun reported the ad agency hired a body double for J. Lo for the parts of the commercial that shows the Fiat driving through the Bronx.
A spokesman for the company said they are investigating the use of the image.
