Dr. Pepper's Chinese Democracy press release

[Genesis]

Very cool. Buckethead's parts are on the album! Yay!

"Not to be an asshole"

but has anyone noticed Axls response is signed "Axl Rose", not "W. Axl Rose" the way he ALWAYS signs?    http://www.gunsnroses.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080326&content_id=a1&vkey=news&fext=.jsp

and there is NO mention of this on Dr. Peppers webesite.   www.drpepper.com

I'm not trying to be negative, just stuff I noticed.  Sorry if it's been mentioned already.

Peace

It's on www.gunsnroses.com

[prairie]

Very cool. Buckethead's parts are on the album! Yay!

"Not to be an asshole"

but has anyone noticed Axls response is signed "Axl Rose", not "W. Axl Rose" the way he ALWAYS signs?    http://www.gunsnroses.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080326&content_id=a1&vkey=news&fext=.jsp

and there is NO mention of this on Dr. Peppers webesite.   www.drpepper.com

I'm not trying to be negative, just stuff I noticed.  Sorry if it's been mentioned already.

Peace

It's on www.gunsnroses.com

Yes I realize that, but when was the last time he didn't sign his name as W. Axl Rose?

I know I'm reading too much into this, maybe it was written by a PR person, and was an oversight. 
And, you'd think DR. Pepper would mention this HUGE challenge on the Promo section of their website.
 Like I say, it was just something odd I noticed.

[SLCPUNK]

You guys read way too much into some of this. 

[Reinaldo]

Don't wanna be an asshole, but...

Could it all be an April Fools thing?
Or something FAKE?

Hope not, cuz' Axl will look like a complete idiot.

check it out. credits for skyzo from perfectcrimegnr.
http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chinesese6.jpg

doesn't it look like a fan made picture?
The blues lyrics seems to be wrong (change instead of taste)... or is that the official one?

I know Jarmo checked the validity of this, but I don't doubt anything in the GNR world. Even fans and the band itself being caught in a huge prank.

In a few days we'll know... maybe.

[Grouse]

From all The people who have called dr pepper most of them got told it was one sided which basically means that gnr is/was not involved, axl's statement pretty much confirms that and in my opininion it should stay that way...

I mean gnr & dr pepper?? yeah that's really something you want to be associated with as a rock band ...

But on the other hand if it'll help get the record out this year then I say go for it

[Jaci_Roxx]

Isn't there a saying that goes "any publicity is good publicity"? And this isn't bad publicity, it's just weird publicity I guess. But hey, it doesn't cost a thing, so why shouldn't Axl take advantage of it and thank them for their support. (He must be laughing his a$$ off right now.  )

I'm just glad that we got to hear from Axl.  Thank you Dr Pepper (or whoever is responsible for this)! 

[TomFriend]

Very cool. Buckethead's parts are on the album! Yay!

Yup, I was jazzed to hear that.

[bazgnr]

Don't wanna be an asshole, but...

Could it all be an April Fools thing?
Or something FAKE?

Hope not, cuz' Axl will look like a complete idiot.

check it out. credits for skyzo from perfectcrimegnr.
http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chinesese6.jpg

doesn't it look like a fan made picture?
The blues lyrics seems to be wrong (change instead of taste)... or is that the official one?

I know Jarmo checked the validity of this, but I don't doubt anything in the GNR world. Even fans and the band itself being caught in a huge prank.

In a few days we'll know... maybe.

It's legit, I'd say.  The news is coming from too many reliable sources.  Plus, I'm sure the reason so many posts about this were deleted yesterday was to confirm its legitimacy, and - more importantly - wait to hear from Axl & co. first:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/49539-ichinese-democracyi-in-2008-free-dr-pepper-for-all

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003741826

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/03/26/news-ticker-guns-n-roses-warped-tour-richie-sambora-fall-out-boy/

[dub05]

Hope the bb dates on the latest batch of dr peppers are good.

[JordanRose]

Two things: Axl indirectly implies it'll be out this year by assuming he'll have a drink to share and BUCKETHEAD IS ON THE FUCKING ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

[The Prez]

In another thread I posted, nothing is moving in the GN'R camp....maybe I was wrong and there is finally some light at the end of tunnel??

C'mon fucking GN'R!!! I think this is great news whatsoever! At least, it is 'some' news 

[estranged88]

Wow, as if I even needed another reason to love Dr. Pepper!

[Christos AG]

Two things: Axl indirectly implies it'll be out this year by assuming he'll have a drink to share and BUCKETHEAD IS ON THE FUCKING ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I was wondering if anyone would finally notice this "little" detail...

[pilferk]

Isn't DP owned by Pepsi?

No.

Dr. Pepper is owned and operated by Cadbury/Schwepps.

There was a time, not long ago, that Pepsi and Coke (depending on region) distributed and bottled the product for C/S.  But C/S has taken over much of the bottling and distribution, now, as those contracts have lapsed. I THINK there are still some Coke contracts in effect, and I THINK all the Pepsi contracts have lapsed.

[russtcb]

I couldn't believe no one else caught that either! I'm not a big BH fan, but I guess that puts ALOT of speculation to rest about whether or not he'll be on the album!

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Here is the headline on yahoo:

Dr. Pepper issues challenge to ex-members of Guns N' Roses

ex-members? They never get things right when it comes to GNR!

[pilferk]

this is very strange. who on the board found this and how did he/she tumble upon it , just curious.

A press release went out via most of the major news services (I can't remember exactly which service it started on...presswire?).  It started appearing in articles on various sites, but some of the more......press related.....gnr admins found it pretty much right after it hit the wire.

[pilferk]

hey guys, i saw this on another board, don't know if its photoshopped or not. (look at the bottom of the can)

Fan made, as admitted to in another thread, on another board.

[pilferk]

Something about this seems so fishy though.  Dr. Pepper is not really associated with music to a large degree.  What is in this for Dr. Pepper?  Title sponser of huge tour maybe?  There is something in it for them, but what.  Don't think for one second they are doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.

Actually, Cadbury/Schwepps has used viral marketing and music in relation to their products (7-up, for example) in the past.

This isn't so outside the box as you would think.  It's pretty fucking creative, though, and props to whoever came up with it.

[pilferk]

Cool press release.

Good thing I'm not a DP fan - if CD is released in 08, they're going bankrupt! 

I explained, in talking about this "elsewhere" why it won't cost C/S much, at all...especially in light of the exposure/marketing:

With manufacturing and bottling costs (depending on the bottling plant....most use high fructose corn syrup...a few use sugar, which would up the cost), 36 oz of soda (or about 3 cans) costs about .10 to .15 to manufacture. Add the cost of the bottle, and the labor to bottle it. I'd say you're talking somewhere around .05 to .08 a can to bottle and manufacture...something close to that.

IF you were to run this type of campaign, you'd need to do one of two things:

1) Partner with a distribution site (since they don't have one like Taco Bell does) to hand out physical product. I think that's unlikely, all things considered.

2) Dole out coupons via mail. One per person, or per household....something like that. That would require setting up a registration site on the net, and probably a mail drop to collect postcards with names and addresses. Nestle has done that type of thing (with their Carmel Crunch bars, most recently), before.

I think #2 is the far more likely scenario.

In either event, you're not going to get 100% participation in the program. Some won't know about it. Some don't like Dr. Pepper. Some won't go through the process of registering. Some will go through everything to register, and then not use the coupon. What you eventually have is a much smaller sample size, probably around 10 to 20%, max....and probably quite a bit less than that.

So, at the top end of all of that, you have about 60,000,000 x .08 = $4,800,000. Not, considering the size of the company, a huge amount of money. And that's "worst case" scenario, IMHO. You may actually be looking at more like 500k, depending on the % of responses you get.