Sony Sues Kevin Butler for Advertising the Wii, Tires
- Thread starter The Wooster
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Ummm...WWE HAS sued wrestlers that debuted in rival promotions for similar characters even with names changed. also, I'm not sure if you actually watch wrestling, but The former Dudley Boys aren't even allowed to wrestle wearing camo or glasses.Fluoxetine said:
proving once again that Sony is run by idiots. It's no wonder they've deteriorated in the past ten years
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
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
Nope.
The characters have the same face. That's about it, really.
This probably won't end well for Sony. Nothing catastrophic, they'll either just drop it, or push it and not win.
If they do win, however, apparently Sony can own your face.
The characters have the same face. That's about it, really.
This probably won't end well for Sony. Nothing catastrophic, they'll either just drop it, or push it and not win.
If they do win, however, apparently Sony can own your face.
Deteriorated? They've done more or less the same thing with their new consoles as their old ones.Aiddon said:
Meh, making waves. There is no such thing as bad publicity, as they say. They are morons. This doesn't stand a chance of being successful. Sony doesn't own the rights to what the actor looks like, and it sounds like his role was different enough that he isn't going to be mistaken for a faux CEO. Let them waste their money as they have very little good will to work with anymore.
No, if you missed the article you will notice that they are not "allergic" to PR, they just don't have any now-a-days.Denamic said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.389266-Ex-PlayStation-PR-Man-Sony-Is-Sending-Titles-Out-to-Die
But yeah, that was most definitely NOT the same character, the Sony character is very authoritative, this guy is the definition of unprofessional.
It's like claiming that Qui Gon Jin was put in charge of a Naval ship when aliens attacked...... There are aliens in both films, but that doesn't make the character the same.
Wasn't this guy in Geico commercials playing some sort of out-of-touch executive before he started playing Kevin Butler?
Sony's used to getting their way. They're so used to getting their way that they probably don't think about the repercussions.Darks63 said:
And thus, this is the first time something related to Firestone blew up that wasn't in THEIR face.
It's not that simple - to assume so is being disingenuous.Foolproof said:
Sony seems to have made a number of silly decisions as as of late. If firing the winner of The Tester and their entire PR department wasn't bad enough, now they're suing their glorified official spokesperson for what amounts to a 4-second cameo in a commercial.
The issue here is whether Sony owns the rights to the persona of Jerry Lambert. You are straight-up lying when you say they're clearly emulating the KB commercials - the focus is about cars, with it clearly stating in the advertisement that Nintendo is not affiliated with the promotion. In addition, Lambert is never seen playing the Wii (or even being in the same shot as the screen), nor is he dressed as the character - he's dressed in a lab coat and laughing at someone's comment.
He certainly isn't acting like the character of Kevin Butler - to assume so is admitting you either haven't watched the commercial, or you're just being contrarian for the sake of it.
There's an entire Bridgestone campaign that's been going on for months, with him in a background role. He was even in a Bridgestone commercial featured during the Super Bowl. He hams it up in all of them.Foolproof said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LetCUzYa2Vg (that's him hamming it up at the 0:24 mark)
Again, the issue is whether Sony has the rights to Lambert's likeness, not whether he's being Kevin Butler in that commercial. Bridgestone has enough evidence that he's playing a different character in their campaign, not being KB in a specific one.
I fear this is going to blow up in Sony's face.