In-N-Out sues YouTuber over fake employee prank video
In-N-Out Burger has filed a lawsuit against a YouTube personality for allegedly impersonating a company employee, filming customers without their consent and posting videos sharing false and misleading information about the popular California burger chain.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Santa Ana on June 20, stems from a video Bryan Arnett posted to his YouTube channel on April 25. In the now-private video, Arnett posed as an In-N-Out employee at multiple Southern California locations while the chain's restaurants were closed for Easter Sunday.
Wearing the restaurant's signature uniform — a white T-shirt, red apron and paper hat — Arnett pretended to take drive-thru orders from unsuspecting customers. The video showed him offering fake menus, making inappropriate comments and asking uncomfortable personal questions.
In one clip of the video posted to TikTok, Arnett and an accomplice staged a scene where they pretended that a cockroach was found in a meal, with Arnett claiming the location was experiencing 'a pretty bad cockroach problem' that week. Another clip captured him asking a customer if they would be interested in sleeping with his wife while he watched.
According to the lawsuit, Arnett also made false statements suggesting the chain served food 'doggy style' and that a 'manager' had put his 'feet in the lettuce' served to customers.
This isn't Arnett's first run-in with In-N-Out management. He was previously removed from locations for trying to pay for strangers' orders with pennies and for posting fake 'employee of the month' plaques featuring his own photo in dining areas.
The content creator, who has built a following on YouTube and Instagram through videos of himself breaking social norms, recently posted a vlog showing him living inside a Planet Fitness gym to see how long he could stay before being ejected.
In-N-Out, which operates 421 locations across the United States — 283 of them in California — has consistently defended its family-oriented brand reputation. The Irvine-based (as of now) company pursued legal action against another YouTuber for similar pranks in 2018.
Read more: After 30 years, In-N-Out leaves corporate office in Orange County
The chain is also known for hosting international pop-ups as a strategy to maintain its global trademarks and protect its brand identity worldwide. It has previously sued copycat restaurants in Utah, Mexico and Australia for trademark infringement.
'In-N-Out cares deeply about its customers, the goodwill those customers have for its brand, and the Associates who work tirelessly to uphold that brand by their commitment to ensuring every customer has a positive experience,' the lawsuit states.
In a YouTube video posted Monday, Arnett responded to the legal action with apparent indifference.
'It'll probably be annoying or whatever, but whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen,' he said. The video has since been made private.
Arnett did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the lawsuit.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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