Burning Man Is Threatening To Sue Quiznos Subs For Mocking It, In Defense of DeCommodification, Of Course

Apparently one thing that may have gotten torched at Burning Man was a sense of humor. Bonfire of the Vanities?  JL

Dante D'Orazio reports in The Verge:

The organizers take action to protect the festival from "exploitation and commodification, whether deliberate or accidental by limiting the use of photos and videos from the event." Since Quiznos didn't get permission to depict the event or its iconic imagery, like the burning of "The Man," the nonprofit may seek legal remedy.
This one's almost too perfect.
Take Burning Man, the annual, drug-addled, desert hippie festival that was formed on tenets of self-reliance and anti-capitalism. Add a brilliantly-executed parody video (sponsored by the Quiznos sandwich chain, no less) that skewers the whole affair for getting overrun by corporate influence and rich Silicon Valley types.
What do you get? A lawsuit, apparently. The nonprofit behind Burning Man (unsurprisingly) lacks a sense of humor, and it didn't take well to the parody trailer, which mimics The Maze Runner as it sees a group of millennials enter into the strange, strange world of Burners.
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, spokesperson Jim Graham says the nonprofit is considering a lawsuit against Quiznos for intellectual property theft. "We are pretty proactive about protecting our 10 principles, one of which is decommodification," Graham explains.
As the festival's website notes, the organizers take action to protect the festival from "exploitation and commodification, whether deliberate or accidental." It adds that organizers "defend the principle of Decommodification by limiting the use of photos and videos from the event." Since Quiznos didn't get permission to depict the event or its iconic imagery, like the burning of "The Man," the nonprofit may seek legal remedy.
Perhaps Burning Man would be better served by seeing if there's any truth in the advice a hardened Burner gives festival-goers in the parody trailer: "You kids won’t last a day out on the playa without subtle exposure to corporate influence"