Things are looking pretty rough for the big clothing chain after award-winning artist Ariana Grande filed a lawsuit against the store for $10 Million dollars.
The lawsuit claims, “defendants have repeatedly and willfully used Ms. Grande’s name, image, likeness, and music without authorization to generate renewed interest in their brands and social media platforms, and to elicit sales of their products.”
To break it down a little more, The lawsuit describes issues with an Instagram campaign that forever 21 posted. The post shows a look-alike model that resembles Ari’s well-known video “7 rings”. The model that is displayed in the picture is wearing a slicked-back high ponytail with the accessory’s attached. In fact, the caption gives short lyric from her song: “gee thanks, just bought it”.
Earlier this year, Ariana Grande and Forever 21 discussed having an endorsement deal that would be centered on social media. The decision for making this move go forward didn’t quite work out as plan. Ariana Grande representatives claim that the company wouldn’t pay her enough money to continue with the project according to the lawsuit.
Some people react to the lawsuit on twitter :
“So wait, Forever 21 was 5 seconds away from filing bankruptcy last week, and now Ariana Grande just hit them with a FAT lawsuit??? 80% off sale otw.”
“The fact that forever21 is getting sued for having an Ariana grande lookalike model when she herself spends $$$ & tans to look like that is ???”
While Twitter had a lot to say, Forever 21 remains silent on the recent lawsuit. The image of Ariana Grande Inspo has been deleted from the stores Instagram page. The clothing retailer is also considering filing bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg.
We don’t know what’s next for the high fashion store, but it’s not looking too good.