Backslash wrote:

About the legal implications...

In my business law class this term, we studied a case whereby a lady released a baby-care ad for public promotion.  The video featured toys but she did not have the permission of the toy company.  The company caught wind of it and successfully sued her.  The company successfully argued that they did not endorse her product and therefore felt that the lady misrepresented herself as affiliated with the company.

I don't see how this case would be argued differently.  Sure, a different decision would probably be met, but Axl could at least get this case brought to court... If not now, then when the promotion is actually released.  Although it's possible that Dr Pepper's marketing team would develop this strategy without contacting anyone in the GNR camp, it's unlikely that they would.  Especially if they have a competent legal team.  It's far more likely that they contacted all parties involved before investing anything into the campaign.  Otherwise, the promotion would be a potential disaster. Think about it.  Even though Dr Pepper has the promotion worded as a challenge to GNR and they would probably be able to successfully argue that this doesn't harm GNR or the label or anything else in a court of law, there would be legal costs on top of everything else in order to fight it.  It's far more logical to assume that the company would contact everyone involved prior to releasing the ad campaign to avoid such costs.  Moreover, those who argue that the campaign hasn't been officially released yet so GNR probably didn't know beforehand, well, if the company waited until the last minute to get permission from the band and label and didn't receive approval, all of a sudden they're out the millions they've invested into the campaign.  Corporate marketing and legal teams aren't stupid.

For the record, I'm not saying Axl's lying... it's all part of the promotion.  It's a game.  Dr Pepper challenges and Axl Rose remains mysterious and accepts the challenge without ever saying the album will definitely come out in 2008.  It's creating a buzz.

You are absolutely right.  Dr Pepper would have had to contact GNR's legal teams to use the names GNR, Axl and Chinese Democracy.  This would have had to be planned out so they didn't risk a lawsuit.  With a company as big as Dr Pepper, there is no way their marketting teams would be so dumb as to leave any risk of a lawsuit when they know who they are dealing with.

Aussie wrote:

I hear what you are saying, but it's not like they have used the GN'R name to specifically endorse their product or anything e.g. "Axl would never be caught in the jungle with anything but a Dr Pepper".  It's kinda like saying "if Hilary Clinton gets into government then we will give out a free Dr Pepper'.  Personally I can't see anything wrong with that (although you may disagree with the politics of the individual, but that's a personal opinion not a legal matter).  Whilst I admit I am not up on the intracies of the law on this type of thing (so I stand to be corrected) but I'm just struggling to see the basis for a law suit.

Guns N Roses is a registered trademark. Therefore, you cannot use the term without consent. BS is right about freedom of the press. But as for your Hillary analogy, could Dr Pepper say "We'll giva away a free soda if LeBron James wins the Championship" or if "Sidney Crosby gets to the Stanley Cup" No. Why?? You have to pay millions of dollars to use those guys names in advertising. Same thing with sponsoring a movie. 

Believe me, it was worked out in advance. Maybe GnR or the label wasn't directly paid $$, but approval was given.

Aussie wrote:

echrisl wrote:

Just my opinion, of course, but it seems to me that if GNR wasn't in on this from the start their response to it would have been the same as their response to everything else that isn't singers in bands no one has ever heard of accusing Axl of being *gasp* standoffish and anti-social ... no response at all.

P.S.  Just curious, you're suggesting they'll blame Dr Pepper if the album doesn't come out in 2008 to take the heat off themselves?  How would that go?  (I guess it could lend itself to an amusing fiasco ... )

lol - I wouldn't put it past them, but nahh I just meant that their bag of excuses for placating fans is empty so they couldn't even throw us a bone to settle us down and keep us quiet - until this came along possibly out of the blue.

That said I hope I'm wrong and that this is part of some grand clever marketing plan that GN'R have been in on from the start.  But if that's the case why not use the drink Pepsi instead of Dr Pepper (it's more internationally recognised).

You could be right, if so, I am very surprised they would respond to this in any way ... as for why if it's planned they would go with Dr Pepper, my guess would be that a more globally recognized company would stand to give away a lot more product than a somewhat smaller one, and thus might not have been interested, figuring the cost would be too great.  Or maybe Axl just loves Dr Pepper?