Vegas Restaurant Served Cease & Desist for Making Kids Bluey

Looks like a Las Vegas restaurant won’t be able to able to make good on its promise to undo so much bad.

“Bluey” greets guests, some of whom drove for an hour and then waited in line an hour more. (Image: KVVU-TV/Las Vegas)

Dirt Dog has been issued a cease-and-desist order from BBC Studios, which licenses the “Bluey” animated kids show, airing in the US on Disney+.

Parents were enticed to attend by this advertisement. (Image: Facebook/Dirt Dog)

The tiny, off-Strip fast-food eatery made international headlines earlier this month for disappointing a reported 3,000 people with its unauthorized promotion to “meet Bluey & friends,” who star in the Australian cartoon about a Blue Heeler puppy.

Waiting at the end of a very long line to meet the kids was a dude attired in a plastic dime-store onesie and what was apparently a dog-poop bag affixed to his face.

The restaurant promised a do-over of its May 11 debacle with a “real” Bluey. But it will no longer be able to honor that promise.

“To prevent all further harm, BBC Studios demands that you cancel all planned BLUEY DAY events and that you immediately and permanently cease offering any services or products in connection with or that use in any way the BLUEY mark, any confusingly similar variations thereof, and/or any images of characters that are the exclusive intellectual property of Ludo Studio,” read the court order, which was obtained by KVVU-TV/Las Vegas.

“I was mad,” young Sophia Hernandez told KVVU-TV/Las Vegas. “He looked unexpected. We could see his beard.” (Image: KVVU-TV)

What in the Bluey Blazes?

Not that any of the parents who attended the first “Bluey Day” would have attended the second one anyway. Their social media comments expressed unbridled rage at Dirt Dog for its gall.

“Temu Bluey costume and decorations from Dollar Tree,” wrote Kevin Tagenhorst below the event’s Facebook ad. “Thanks for ruining my 3-year-old’s day!”

“You pissed off a community of parents,” added Leiren Theroux. “I’ll never be back to your establishment. My daughter was super disappointed.”

“I drove one hour just to see a grown man in PJs,” another parent wrote, while yet another posted a Facebook marketplace listing for a proper Bluey costume the eatery could have rented for $85.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.

Comments icon

Conversation (3 comments)

+ Add a comment
  • PA
    Poor advertising May 29, 2024
    The owner is an idiot. You put bluey on an ad you best deliver. Bluey is known world wide now.
    Reply
  • R
    Ronda May 29, 2024
    Looks like they beat the guy black and bluey!
    Reply
  • NY
    Nun Ya May 29, 2024
    Blame the parents for buying the garage sold by the business, in social media, hook, line and sinker. There's evidently 3000 suckers in Las Vegas… Blame the parents for buying the garage sold by the business, in social media, hook, line and sinker. There's evidently 3000 suckers in Las Vegas who can't do leg work and homework before showing up.
    Reply

Write a comment

Your email address will not be published.