Swedish clothing label H&M are currently in midst of controversy, as the brand appears to plonked a song by Melbourne producer Harvey Sutherland into an ad without permission.
The ad in question is a post from yesterday on the multi-national brand’s Instagram. When commenters starting asking what the synth-funk song used in the gram’s second slide was, the brand replied several times saying that it “did not have a name” as it was an original commission.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeztQV8gsxZ/
(Source: Instagram.com)
But fans of 2014 Melbourne synth-wave began to call it out in the comments as Harvey’s track ‘Bamboo‘, which predates the ad by four years. Harvey then took to the comments, writing “Excuse me, this is my song you’re using without approval, licence or credit.” Here’s a screen-cap:
https://twitter.com/brodielancaster/status/960660143623950336
Here’s a link to ‘Bamboo’: it’s unmistakably the same song. Understandably, people are calling out H&M on the Instagram post to pay Harvey.
(Source: Instagram.com)
The post, which at time of writing has been up for 17 hours, hasn’t received further comment from H&M at this time.
And to completely fair, there are a few possible reasons for the mix-up. Perhaps H&M did commission a piece and the artist/company attached did a dodgy? Otherwise why would they repeatedly call it an ‘original work’? Time will tell.
Last month, H&M faced criticism over a racially-insensitive kids hoodie, resulting in previous brand ambassador The Weeknd speaking out and cutting ties.
Image: Instagram
