Nespresso Sues Coffee Rival For Using George Clooney Look-A-Like

George Clooney has been the face for the notable coffee brand Nespresso for a while, and a rival coffee company known as Israeli Espresso Club has enlisted the help of a Clooney look-a-like to be their handsome representative and image for their own advertisements.

“A George Clooney doppelganger is brewing up tensions between two coffee companies in Israel. Nespresso is suing the Israeli Espresso Club for using an actor with a striking resemblance to the Hollywood star in one of its ads. Clooney is the face of Nespresso. The ad shows the Clooney lookalike being schooled on the benefits of Espresso Club. A disclaimer on the screen warns that the actor, silver-haired and carrying what appears to be a Nespresso bag, ‘is not George Clooney’.”

The Nespresso execs are concerned by the misleading nature of the ad, and are asking for the ad to be removed as well as $50,000. The Israeli Coffee Club explained their reasoning for using the Clooney doppelganger, as the publication relays.

“Espresso Club says the tongue-in-cheek ad and the Clooney character were meant to target customers looking for a more ‘informal’ coffee experience.”

The advertisement is certainly a dig at the Nespresso ads starring Clooney, as the handsome look-a-like starts off the ad by exiting what appears to be a Nespresso boutique while carrying what looks like a Nespresso bag with a blurred out logo. The actor then continues on to catch the attention of a beautiful young woman, much like Clooney does in the ad, except that he is interrupted by an “average Joe,” as Fortune describes, and the facade unravels. The publication shares details of the final moments of the advertisement, which seems to poke fun at the espresso brand’s tough competition.

“An Average Joe interrupts his moment to tell him, ‘Stop talking to yourself, they’re towing your car.’ Confused, the Clooney lookalike declares, “But wait — I left the car with the valet!” Alas, there is no valet, and he watches as his car is driven away on the back of a tow truck. The plaid-clad man then tells him that wouldn’t have happened if he had an Espresso Club machine at home. It ends with its own tagline which roughly translates to ‘simply to drink coffee.'”

View the advertisement to see how the Clooney-like actor is made to appear foolish in an effort to change people’s minds about frequenting the Nespresso stores and continuing to purchase Nespresso over Israeli Espresso Club’s product.

Although Clooney has not expressed his views about the Clooney clone, the actor has been busy fielding questions in regards to remarks about racism at the Oscars. The actor weighed in and communicated with Variety on the issue.

“‘If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job. Think about how many more African Americans were nominated.’ (In 2005, Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx both won acting Oscars, and Catalina Sandino Moreno, Don Cheadle, and Sophie Okonedo were among the nominees.) Echoing the popular sentiment that the lack of diversity at the Oscars is reflective of a larger systemic problem, Clooney says, ‘I would also make the argument, I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?”

As the publication notes, Clooney has been an advocate for a number of causes and has often used his position as a popular actor, director and producer to speak up on the issues.

[Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images]