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Posted By Shaun K. about 7 months, 2 weeks ago
‘Kevin Butler’ is Being Sued by Sony,
You have to love when a perfect visual metaphor comes along.
It really does feel like we have wandered far down the rabbit hole this time folks. That is because news broke earlier tonight of a lawsuit filed on September 11 by Sony Computer Entertainment again actor Jerry Lambert and tire-maker Bridgestone in relation to a commercial off the latter featuring the former. And for those of you going “Who is Jerry Lambert and why should I care?” perhaps the following ad also staring Mr. Lambert will shed some light on the matter:
That is right, Jerry Lambert for years now has played the part of none other than Kevin Butler aka THE face-man of Sony Computer Entertainment. Who are now suing him for trademark infringement. You cannot make this stuff up people. The ad in question was, as you might guess, for Bridgestone Tires and specifically focused on a promotion the company is running in partnership with such companies as American Express and Nintendo. Where rub comes in is the fact that the ad featured Lambert and a number of other actors playing a round of Mario Kart on the Wii. The original ad (which can be found in its entirety here) has since be edited to completely remove Lambert from it but apparently that was not enough for Sony.
Here is the thing: we do not know all the details in this case but it would not surprise me if Lambert had in his contract a set period of time in which he could not be seen endorsing competing video game consoles. And even though Lambert is not playing a character remotely resembling (much less directly or indirectly referenced as) his Butler persona, this is still probably too close to comfort for Sony. All that being said, I cannot imagine a much worse way the company could have handled this affair than with a lawsuit.
Sure you have to protect your trademark but at the same time Kevin Butler is not exactly an intellectual property that is going to have much value in and of itself. Without Lambert there is not Butler and now it seems unlikely that Lambert will ever want to willing have anything to do with Sony again. Lawsuits tend to sour relationships you know. Not mention what effect this will have on morale of the larger PlayStation community, who in recent years have come to embrace the Butler character in a way that normally makes PR firms drool. Again, it is hard to speculate safely without having more facts about the case, but at the very least I cannot help but wonder if Sony had really exhausted all their other options before turning to a lawsuit (and considering this ad first start airing only a week before the lawsuit was filed I have my doubts).
It becomes even worse when you realize that only a few weeks after this lawsuit was filed, SCE America laid off half their PR department. So rebuilding without Butler will be that much harder. Oh well, it is not like Sony has a big first party crossover game that they are pinning much of their holiday sales on coming out soon and that will need heavy promotion in order to succeed… Oh wait. That is right. They do. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out before all is said and done and you can count on Blistered Thumbs to stay on top of this story as it continues to develop. In the meantime, be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Source(s): Justia.com
The opera commercial for the move is still something I will smile at every single time I watch it..
Was sad that I stopped seeing commercials with him…
To me this is like if some new MMO got Mr. T for a commercial and then Blizzard sued saying “Uh uh, you can’t do that because Mr. T is a Night Elf Mohawk!”
Everything I’ve seen says the suit is over an Intellectual Property Trademark Infringement, nothing involving a no compete clause. Sony is literally claiming they own his face.
Sony claims that Lambert’s appearance in the Bridgestone ads “confused” many consumers.
Is it obvious only to me that these “consumers” are all preteens who can’t tell the difference between make-believe and real life? Which means Sony is suing because they believe millions of snot-nosed brats who can’t yet count to twenty won’t buy Sony games and toys because they feel some actor “betrayed” them? (This is assuming that such consumers actually exist.)
A wild law article appears!
Kenny F. sends out law student powers. Analysis:
What could have possibly happened here is that Mr. Lambert could have violated a non-compete clause in his contract, which is entirely possible (as you brought up in some form in the article) – this usually crops up in contracts between corporations and their workers, and this prohibits them from finding work with competitors. Of course, the validity of this case might not be there since this was a gig with Firestone, but with the scarcity of facts we can’t know for sure whether Nintendo had a hand in this promotion; if this was the case, then Mr. Lambert could have broken a non-compete clause by working with Nintendo.
I would’ve immediately had a counter-ad with Butler playing GT5 and going “Oh man, so much better than that $h!t I played last week”
That would’ve been funny and effective.
Today Sony VP Kevin Butler leaves the company, taking the PS4 and all hopes of relevance in the future with him. Well, mostly. I’d want to assume they are out of stupid moves to make, but then they would just depress me all the more.
I guess this means Marcus is getting promoted? *shudder*
Sony, still a poor substitute for Sega, lol
Sega was a poor substitute for Sega.
Playstation, it only does everything… except forgiveness.
We know about the lawsuit, but we don’t know what came before it. Who knows what was said outside of the public domain. The decision may appear rash, but perhaps they were left with no other option?
Will be intreresting to find out the truth behind this.
I was wondering how they would react to that commercial. Hopefully, this doesn’t sour their relationship too much.
Wow, this makes Sony look like huge A holes.
Sony. Rash Decisions. It’s What We Do.