Sarah Michelle Gellar says she was sued by McDonald’s at age 5 for bizarre reason

Sarah Michelle Gellar ended up getting caught up in a McDonald’s lawsuit after starring in a very brief ad for a competitor.

Gellar, who is known for her roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Scooby-Doo and I Know What You Did Last Summer, had her small-screen debut when she was just 5-years-old back in 1981 and it would cause quite a stir.

But it wasn’t because of the way Gellar acted, in fact she was quite adorable in the advert, but rather she took a jab at McDonald's while starring in the ad for a competitor.

Companies taking shots at one another is pretty normal these days, but this wasn’t always the case.

And the dialogue Gellar spoke proved to get the people at McDonald’s pretty riled up.

In the old Burger King advert, the adorable Gellar said: “Do I look 20 percent smaller to you, I must to McDonald's.

“When I order a regular burger at McDonald's, they make it with 20 percent less meat than Burger King, unbelievable.

“Luckily, I know the perfect way to show McDonald’s how I feel, I go to Burger King.”

The video then panned up to the Burger King store behind Gellar and the company's jingle at the time began to play and close out the advert.

Gellar spoke to Buzzfeed UK about getting caught up in the lawsuit and said: “This is really funny. This was this big campaign that I did for Burger King and I was 5.

“And I was the first person to say another competitor’s name in a job and so McDonald’s turned around and sued the advertising agency, Burger King and me at 5.”

In 1982, McDonald’s sued Burger King, the ad agency J. Walter Thompson and named Gellar as the star of multiple ads in what it described as ‘false, deceptive, disparaging, unfair and misleading’ campaign.

The lawsuit was eventually resolved and the ads were pulled from circulation (Smgvids/YouTube/Burger King)

The lawsuit was eventually settled and the ads were pulled from rotation.

Gellar has also previously spoken about how this whole situation impacted her childhood, noting that she didn’t frequent McDonald’s all that much afterwards.

Speaking to the Sunday Express in 2004, she said: “Banned is a strong word [but] I wasn’t allowed to eat there. It was tough because, when you’re a little kid, McDonald’s is where all your friends have their birthday parties, so I missed out on a lot of apple pies."

But since the lawsuit has been resolved, Gellar can eat at McDonald’s to her heart's content and I'm sure she’s loving it.

UNILAD has contacted McDonald's for comment