Sony Sues Kevin Butler for Advertising the Wii, Tires

[Rodrigo Girao]

It was unethical of Sony to do ads with a fake executive in the first place! They should have done like Daimler, that did similar ads starring their actual chairman.

 

[Formica Archonis]

​

Wasn't this guy in Geico commercials playing some sort of out-of-touch executive before he started playing Kevin Butler?

Okay, got off my ass and found it, thank you Youtube:

 

[RicoADF]

Maybe if there was more Kevin Butler, he wouldn't have been in the Bridgestone ads in the first place. Shame on Sony, THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS!

Seriously though, this is just a PR nightmare for Sony if you ask me. KB is a beloved face, and we love him not because of the dialog, but how it was presented...by the actor! Sony has no bright and cheery face in this lawsuit, and I doubt anyone even made the connection until they started blowing it up. I saw him in them and said, huh, is that Kevin Butler? And that was it, now I know it's him, and want him to beat Sony's ass...and it's a shame because I'm a PS3 man

He was hired by Sony to promote the PS3 and you can guarentee that there was a clause in that contract that said he couldn't take a job that promoted a rival company (specifically Nintendo and Microsoft). He would have known this and yet still took a job promoting the Wii as a free reward for buying tires. Legally he is in the wrong and will lose the case. It might seem like a dick move but its to prevent someone getting famous (in this example from Sony's ads) and then going to a rival and promoting them and causing a boost in sales in their consoles thanks to his fame that Sony has created. Its a standard clause in work contracts like these.