Tibi Puiu
Axl Rose - Chinese Democracy
I knew Axl and his lot were outrageous from the start, but this latest stunt is really weird, not to say stupid – the type of thing Prince would be proud of.
Ok, remember the Dr. Pepper ad that stated if Chinese Democracy would finally get released in 2008, then the company would give out a can of Dr. Pepper to every American citizen (apart from Slash and Buckethead, of course)? Well, this week, on November 23rd Chinse Democracy indeed got out and Dr. Pepper put out a feature, down at their website, allowing US visitors to receive a coupon for a free can of soda. Problem is, on the release day, the website crashed and Axl’s people saw this as a total ‘publicity fiasco,’ buy it allegedly ruined the far saught release date.
Now, Axl’s legal represeantives are threatining with charges, if Dr. Pepper refuses to issue a public appology. Check out the letter Dr. Pepper’s CEO Larry Young received from Axl’s cohorte.
“Tthe redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, ‘ruined’ the day of Chinese Democracy’s release”.
“As we all now know, Dr. Pepper created an expansive and highly-publicized advertising campaign based solely on the exploitation of my cleints’ legendary reputation. In and of itself this campaign brazenly violated our clients’ rights in numerous respects. Unfortunately, Dr. Pepper has now magnified the damage this campaign has caused through its appalling failure to make good on a promise it made to the American public.”
The letter continues with other boring bla, blas until it hits the best part:
“Our clients are outrated at your treatment of their fans and the American public in general. After it became clear that Chinese Democracy would be released in 2008, Dr. Pepper executive Tony Jacobs proudly proclaimed that Dr. Pepper would make good on its promise to give a free soda to everyone in America. It turned out that Dr. Pepper did not define ‘everyone in America’ the same way as ‘everyone in America’ defined ‘everyone in America.’” It concludes, “Had you wished to engage in a commercial tie-in with our clients, you should have negotiated a legitimate arrangement instead of hijacking their rights without payment. Rest assured, this misappropriation will not be free.”
If that isn’t retarded, I don’t know what retarded is.
