If youâre going to co-opt the name of one of Hollywoodâs most iconic directors, you might want to get the okay from him first.Carlâs Jr. announced earlier this week that it would rename its Charbroiled Sliders to "Spielburgers" in celebration of Steven Spielbergâs upcoming film Ready Player One. The company noted in the announcement that it had not cleared this with Spielberg, a fact that has become readily apparent in the last few days.[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/CarlsJr/status/978119351508357120[/EMBED_TWITTER]Warner Bros. Pictures was the first party to respond to the name change, revealing that, while Carlâs Jr. had not okayed the change with Spielberg directly, the fast food company had also not checked with Warner to see if everything was cool. Surprise -- it wasnât.
Eventually the news reached Spielberg himself, who got onto the Amblin Entertainment Twitter account to voice his opinion, which was a fairly unsurprising one, all told. âTheyâre pretty good,â Spielberg said in the video, referring to the burgers in question, âbut Iâm passing. Cease and desist. You canât do it. Sorry, guys.â
This could be a major blow to Carlâs Jr.âs marketing plan, as the company has already devoted significant resources making Spielburgers-themed parodies on its YouTube account and even orchestrating an ill-fated attempt to deliver hamburgers to Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment's headquarters. Of course, thereâs a the distinct possibility that all of this back-and-forth is really an attempt at viral marketing and that the fast food company did okay everything with Spielberg and Warner.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see if Carlâs Jr. sticks with its renaming scheme, or if the Spielburger will just be one more piece of nostalgia slated to be revered in the digital world of Ready Player Oneâs OASIS.