Dr Pepper bitchslapped

[Howard2k]

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3iac81cb9ace3320f89f3267e4edc67974

Guns N' Roses? Lawyer Blasts Dr Pepper
November 26, 2008 - Legal and Management | Digital and Mobile | Rock and Pop

By Andre Paine, London

Guns N' Roses' and Axl Rose's lawyer has castigated Dr Pepper, accusing the soda maker of failing to deliver on its "Chinese Democracy" (Black Frog/Geffen) free soda promotion, which the band was never involved in.

Beverly Hills-based Alan Gutman has written to Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. president and CEO Larry Young, accusing the company of operating an online redemption scheme that was an "unmitigated disaster which defrauded customers." Gutman is demanding that Dr Pepper makes good on its offer by extending the period for the offer; he also wants full-page apologies in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.

Gutman's letter makes clear his view that the original campaign was an "exploitation of my clients' legendary reputation and their eagerly awaited album" and "brazenly violated our clients' rights." He is also seeking an "appropriate payment... for the unauthorized use and abuse of their publicity and intellectual property rights," with the threat of further action if an acceptable offer is not made.

"Now is the time to clean up the mess," says Gutman.

Rose did not take any action when, in March, Dr Pepper put out a press release offering free soda to any American if the long-awaited Guns N' Roses album came out before the end of 2008. However, Rose has reacted to the news that fans have been unable to get their soda following the Nov. 23 release of "Chinese Democracy."

Dr Pepper's Web servers crashed under the demand for coupons that could be exchanged for free drinks. Dr Pepper extended the Nov. 23 promotion for an extra day, but the company's Web site was inaccessible for a substantial part of it.

"Dr Pepper was completely unprepared for the traffic to its site," says Gutman in the letter, describing the promotion as a "complete fiasco."

Gutman adds: "The entire point of your campaign has been to use public interest in Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses as a lure to increase consumer awareness of Dr Pepper." He further states that "mocking undertones" in the online promotional content represent a "raw and damaging commercial exploitation of our clients' rights," adding that the association is "even more damaging in light of your shoddy execution of your disingenuous giveaway offer."

The soda maker declined to comment. Dr Pepper was considering extending the promotion, according to a source close to the situation.

[loretian]

Wow.  That is unfortunate.  I don't know what to say about the legalities of it all, but I do know that's it very hard to gauge and prepare for the amount of traffic that might come in a situation like that.  I've been in dozens of situations were we thought we prepared servers to handle the load, and then found it out wasn't nearly enough, or where we've completely overbuilt to handle way more than necessary, and cost the client lots of money in doing so.

On the other hand, maybe Dr. Pepper shouldn't have done their promotion at all if they weren't absolutely positive they could handle it.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

Dr Pepper really did not go out of their way to make good on what they were pitching.

[bushkarocks!!]

guns n roses better do some real promotion instead of getting after Drpepper.

I agree tho that Drpepper did not do a real good job at getting that free soda out

[Izzy]

Dr Pepper's original statement back in March was a joke - they never believed the album was coming out

But i think it was a good natured joke, it wasnt at Axl's expense - more like banter between friends

I dont think it made any impact on their sales but helped Axl enourmously - so their is no case to answer, and the GNR camp wont have a leg to stand on

Frankly I believe it was Dr Pepper's words that got the album released - Axl took the words badly and decided to fight back - by releasing the album

He finally realised he was a joke in the publics eyes

A good album has been an effective way of answering that

[falungong69]

like axl, i was intially behind the dr. pepper promotion.  i really liked that one of the few press releases axl put out was about the awesome dr. pepper promotion.  i'm not sure why he suddenly feels like they used his image/brand without consent, but whatever.  i support axl.  and if that means i have to stop drinking dr. pepper, then fuck dr. pepper.  they're haters who want to tear axl down.

[Frequent Flyer]

I support GN'R's decision in this. Dr. Pepper made an offhand remark to capitalize on the GN'R name, and then failed to fully deliver on their word. On and off access to their site for 24 hours is NOT free Dr. Pepper for everyone in the US. They did not handle this well, did not take appropriate measures to back up their promises, and did their best to cop out of loosing a ton of money; and now GN'R is calling them out on their bullshit, as well as making sure people know that they aren't officially associated with this attention grab.

[wells]

wow, now fans bitching about guns takin actions against something that was not fullfilled and actually standing behind fans... amazing. why do people care and think they know what guns should do? always complaining about something that is done how band thinks it should be done. no promotion, cd skips... yes guns should care how to earn as much money as they can and not care about fans at all... I am really amazed by some fans...

[leatherebel]

about time...seriously this was to be expected as  the whole dr pepper thing turned out such a scam to the point of being insulting to gn'r and the fans..

[IKnowWhereIAM]

I hate to say "I told you so", but...just wait until the junk mail starts pouring in (for those that did 'register'), to add insult to injury. 

[Axlative]

WTF? I thought Pepper extend the offer due to the problems? 

[Sillything]

Don't ever try to tell me how much you care for me Dr Pepper

[thesloth]

It is simple.  Dr. Pepper came out saying they would offer a free pop to everyone in the U.S.    They then pull abullshit move saying 1 day only and the site crashes cause no site can handle 65 million people at the same time.  As for it costing DR. peper money the actual cost for them to sell a bottle is far less then what a consumer pays.  If Dr. Pepper was smart they would have done 23 days of free dr pepper so one had 23 days to get the coupon.  Not a hard concept just some fucking money men got involved and fucked it up

[slashsbaconpit]

I don't understand the anger now.

I mean, the first response by the band and Axl was one of amusement, Axl even saying that he'd share his Dr. Pepper with Buckethead.

As for the redemption of the offer, I got registered for it just fine.

The one thing I can see is that Dr. Pepper did capitalize on the GNR franchise. I think if there is a legal case to this, that is where the issue lies. This whole thing about people not getting their soda, I think that's just padding for the legal motion.

[ereeper]

That's it, Sorry is about Dr. Pepper.

[FunkyMonkey]

GUNS N' ROSES Vs. DR PEPPER: Complete Letter Available - Nov. 26, 2008

BLABBERMOUTH.NET has obtained a copy of the entire three-page letter (see below) that was sent by GUNS N' ROSES' and Axl Rose's lawyer to Dr Pepper, accusing the soda maker of failing to deliver on its "Chinese Democracy" free soda promotion, which the band was never involved in.

Here: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=109700

[leatherebel]

GUNS N' ROSES Vs. DR PEPPER: Complete Letter Available - Nov. 26, 2008

BLABBERMOUTH.NET has obtained a copy of the entire three-page letter (see below) that was sent by GUNS N' ROSES' and Axl Rose's lawyer to Dr Pepper, accusing the soda maker of failing to deliver on its "Chinese Democracy" free soda promotion, which the band was never involved in.

Here: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=109700

A personal appology from the individual known as Kaneda to those misled by him GN'R fans would also be appropriate. While some may appreciate the free 6-packs given away by him, his accompanying message implying that this was on behalf of GN'R was not welcome at all. He should not have spoken on behalf of Dr Pepper in the first place to create this mess, and he certainly should have not pretended to have any association with GN'R.

[crow316]

I do believe they said, "Everyone in America"  Not  "everyone who happens to get through on our jammed up website for one day"  They should have made as many coupons as there are people in the US and just mailed them out with all the other junk mail coupons we get.

[GNR4L]

I personally think they should of included the free coupon's in the CD itself, while working with Guns N' Roses on the appriopriate way to let everyone know that if you purchase a album you will get a free Dr Pepper.  That's what the people at Dr Pepper should of said from the beggining.  I have no problem with Guns N' Roses taking action against the soft drink.  It took me till 11pm pacific time sunday, to actually get on the website and get my free coupon. While I checked monday, the server's were still down ! unbelievable  ! totally unprofessionable on Dr Pepper's part, to use Axl and Gun's the way they did.  Dr Pepper really dropped the ball on this one.

[cineater]

I guess if we were giving them the benefit of doubt Dr. Pepper would have fixed this problem on their own and GNR wouldn't have had to contact their attorney to send a threatening letter.  It's not really a big deal for me.  I really just wanted the coupon and hadn't planned on cashing it in.  Not an issue I want to see GNR spend their engery on.