The Celebrity Truth

A lawyer acting on behalf of Axl Rose and his band Guns ‘N Roses, has fired off an angry letter to the President and CEO of Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc, accusing them of hijacking their clients image over a botched promotional campaign to offer free drinks if the band releases their long-overdue album ‘Chinese Democracy’, which is on store shelves now.

The tongue-in-cheek gesture was first offered earlier this year when reports suggested Rose would finally release his rock masterpiece, that had been 17-years in the making.

Dr Pepper offered a free can of their drink to every American if the album saw the light of day by the end of 2008, however, when the time came to deliver, consumers only had 24 hours to register on the company’s website to obtain a voucher for their complimentary beverage.

Due to the demand, the Dr Pepper site was unable to sustain the traffic and people were directed to a customer number, with some calls going unanswered according to reports.

Alan S. Gutman, Roses lawyer, fired off a heated letter to the head of Dr Pepper accusing them of creating “an expansive and highly publicized advertising campaign based soley on the exploitation of my clients legendary reputation… This campaign brazenly violated our client’s rights in numerous respects.

“Unfortunately,” the letter continues.  “Dr Pepper has now magnified the damage this campaign caused through it’s appalling failure to make good on a promise it made to the American public.”

Gutman requests that full page ads be taken out in major US newspapers apologizing for their failure, along with an expansion of their redemption window and has asked Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc to make a monetary offer to Rose for using his name and likeness in their botched promotion.

No repsonse to the letter has been made from Dr Pepper at the time of writing.

Photo courtesy of Geffen.