In-N-Out Burger sues YouTuber following controversial stunt
In-N-Out Burger is one of America’s most beloved burger chains despite being more or less exclusive to the West Coast and most concentrated within California.
Its iconic burgers are honestly fantastic – on this writer’s first taste of one, they returned within a few hours for a second – and it’s had a fair few celebrity endorsements over the years.
The Rock is seemingly making a habit of visiting them, raving about them, and forgetting them so he can do it all again.
Advert
And honestly, who can blame him? If only we could all selectively forget the seminal moments in our lives so we can relive them as if for the first time.
Sadly we’re not here today to wax lyrical about the burger chain’s earth-shatteringly great burgers. The burger chain is suing a popular YouTuber over a prank video that allegedly painted In-N-Out as a dirty and rude place to eat.
The suit was filed against Bryan Arnett, the YouTuber in question, in central California’s district court, per CBS.
In-N-Out claimed in the suit that a video in which Arnett wore a fake uniform with the company’s branding whilst making ‘lewd, derogatory and profane remarks’ to customers.
The lawsuit alleged that Arnett told customers that the chain’s food contained cockroaches and condoms, along with saying that staff would ‘put their feet in lettuce served to customers’.
Arnett’s video, which has been set to ‘private’ on his YouTube channel, saw him taking orders at a seemingly-closed In-N-Out outlet whilst making inappropriate comments about both the chain and himself.
Along with claiming the chain has ‘a pretty bad cockroach problem this week’, he told a customer, "I like watching my wife sleeping with other men.” He then asked, “Is that something you'd be interested in?"
The lawsuit claims trademark infringement and business defamation, and the company is seeking to ban Arnett from its stores along with having all of his videos referencing In-N-Out removed from his channel.
In-N-Out is also seeking to claim the profits he may have made through those videos.
In another video made private on Arnett’s account, he appeared to respond to the lawsuit.
"I'm not gonna sit here and act surprised,” he said.
"When I went out and filmed the video, I kinda knew what kind of waters I was stepping into. I knew I was kinda teetering the line a little bit, pushing my luck.
"I wouldn't say I'm worried about the lawsuit," he continued. "It'll probably be annoying or whatever, but whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen."
Rachael Davis