McDonald's is being accused of copying a cult animator's work in one of its ads MCD

Get the Full StoryCyriak Harris, a surrealist British animator with a cult following, has accused McDonald's of copying one of his videos for an ad campaign.

The "Vacas" spot, for McDonald's in Latin America, features a herd of cows dancing in a field.

Vimeo Embed:http: www.vimeo.com video 176208286Width: 640pxHeight: 360px

On Tuesday, Harris tweeted the resemblance between the scene from the ad and one of his own videos, "cows & cows & cows," which also depicts cows bopping away in a field.

Tweet Embed:https: twitter.com mims statuses 760435431943053312Wonder how much McDonalds paid someone to copy my video. I didn't even get paid to make the original pic.twitter.com XGWjHQq0j6

One of Harris' Twitter followers pointed out that a person, purportedly from the Visual FX firm behind the ad, posted the video to a forum and mentioned they were inspired by the animator's work:

NewTekA user in the "NewTek" forum commented that the cows reminded them of Cyriak's video.

NewTek"Leandropedrouzo," who claimed to be from Juan Solo VFX Studio a 3d animator called Leandro Pedrouzo is listed on the company's website , responded: "Actually Cyriak was the reference for this Spot. The director and I wanted to go a bit more realistic but the client loved the ref."

NewTekMcDonald's and Juan Solo VFX Studio did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

Cyriak's "cows & cows & cows" video has notched up more than 37 million views on YouTube since it was posted in 2010:

Youtube Embed:http: www.youtube.com embed FavUpD_IjVYWidth: 560pxHeight: 315px

This is not the first time McDonald's or one of its agencies has been accused of copying ideas from previously-published works.

Last year, McDonald's was forced to apologize to a pair of freelancers who accused the fast food chain of stealing their idea — a montage of a mock engagement with a burrito — in a Twitter marketing campaign. McDonald's Twitter photos also carried a mock engagement theme and strongly resembled the freelancers' images.

McDonald's apologized and removed the photos from its Twitter feed.NOW WATCH: Watch the Air Force drop 8 armored Humvees out of a plane from 5,000 feet

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