Well, I am sure all of us (or most of us) are aware of the 99, 89, and 79 cent menu Taco Bell offers for their food items. They decided to launch a campaign of "Why pay more?" and suggested to the media that rapper 50 cent should change his name for a day to help with the campaign. Now, the suggestion was unofficial, meaning no letter was sent to the rapper but he got word of what they were doing and sued for 4 million dollars in damages for them using his name without permission. Once Taco Bell executives got word of the lawsuit, they offered to pay $10,000 to a charity of 50 cents choice. Of course, 50 cent is not going for that.
I do think the 4 million dollars in damages is a bit much. And it wasn't like Taco Bell used the name 50 cent for ad or the menu. They just really wanted him to endorse them. I do think they should have not made the suggestion to the media and this lawsuit is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they did not have any customers saying, 'Im coming to Taco Bell because 50 cent said so". or anything else involving 50 cent. Not to mention 50 cent is a way of describing the amount of a good or service and is commonly used in businesses.
Any thought? Check out the link?
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-07-23-50-cent-taco-bell_N.htm
2 comments:
I think this post is pretty funny and I agree with 4 million is a little too much, when you actually have hardly any evidence to lean on. Furthermore it seems obvious that 50 cent maybe wasn't the smartest name to pick since everyone should be able to use
'50 cent' in their ad since it is something general. That way he just has to google and then starting sueing people, that is not the way it should be! :)
I'm pretty sure that the logo or image for "50 cent" is Trademarked. But even if Taco Bell decided to put a 50 cent item on the menu, it would be a ridiculous complaint, unless they used the exact phrase "50 cent" not "fifty cent" or "50 c"
Well that's my 2 cents :)
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