Cadillac’s F1 Super Bowl Commercial Incites $1.5 Million Lawsuit From Michael Bay

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Internationally acclaimed action film director Michael Bay has filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the fledgling American automotive branded Formula 1 team  before it has even turned a wheel in competition. The Athletic dug up the 19-page lawsuit filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court of California on Friday accused Cadillac F1 team boss Dan Towriss of stealing Bay’s intellectual property regarding the team’s unveiling advertisement played during Sunday’s big game. 

Bay’s lawsuit says Cadillac “have apparently stolen Bay’s ideas and work for the commercial, without paying for them.” This is a serious accusation, and as a freelance contract worker Bay should have known better than to provide any work on spec. You can’t ever trust a company to pay for your work if you don’t have a contract in place. That’s just facts. 

According to Bay’s timeline of events, he met with Towriss for a video call and the two talked various pitches. Two days later Bay says he presented his pitch for the ad, and Towriss told him he was hired. “OK, let’s get to work,” Bay alleges Towriss told him. “I will let everyone know.” He and his team operated from that point as if the contracts had been signed and began work on the project while their agents hammered out the details. 

On December 6 Bay’s team claims it was informed by Cadillac that the team intended to “go in a different direction” with the project and someone else would produce the spot. When it came out that the “different direction” was the same direction with someone cheaper, Bay was understandably peeved.

What does Caddy say?

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For its part, reports the Associated Press, Cadillac says it is confident it can resolve the dispute with Bay, as the concept and creative for the spot were already decided on before the conversation with the director.

“Michael Bay is a cinematic genius and we talked with him about directing our Super Bowl ad. But after two meetings, it became clear he couldn’t meet our timeline, and there ultimately wasn’t a path forward,” a spokesperson for Cadillac F1 said in a statement to The Athletic. “It’s unclear why he’s bringing this claim, since the concept and creative were already developed and we were only exploring him as a director. It’s also unusual to raise this now, given the ad hasn’t even been released. We’re confident this will be resolved appropriately. Even so, we still admire Michael Bay’s creative brilliance and would welcome the opportunity to work together in the future.”

Towriss mentioned in a recent media roundtable that he was “disappointed that he [Bay] chose to do that.” Continuing, “Certainly, all the creative was done well in advance of ever speaking with him. We were wanting to talk to him about a role as director, not taking creative ideas from him.”

According to the suit, Towriss and Cadillac place the blame for un-hiring or allegedly never hiring Bay in the first place on the production studio contracted to make the commercial, Translation. The proposed budget for the commercial was a scant $3 million, and because it was a tight turnaround Bay’s team set about putting together production schedules, planning film locations, and creating a mock commercial with elements and dialogue cribbed from Bay’s prior work with General Motors, which was presented to Cadillac on December 5, one day before he was allegedly notified he’d been relieved of the project. 

Why can’t we all just get along?

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Following the December 6th firing of Michael Bay and his team, the famed “Ambulance” and “Transformers” director “has since attempted to informally resolve this dispute with Defendants for the past two months, without success.” The suit spells out what we’re all thinking, that Cadillac and Dan Towriss wanted a Michael Bay production, but weren’t willing to pay Michael Bay prices. 

Mr. Bay is seeking remuneration for his director’s and producer’s fees, for the time he and his team spent on the project unpaid, and costs incurred to him and his team in the process of doing said work. Not one for subtlety, Bay is also seeking punitive damages. His complaint against Cadillac and Towriss include breach of verbal contract, breach of implied-in-fact contract, goods and services rendered, and fraud. 

It isn’t a good sign that Cadillac is already embroiled in its second major scandal before the team even gets an opportunity to spend the 2026 season finishing in 21st and 22nd position.