Guns N' Roses became Guns N' Roses N' Lawyers this week.
The band, which released its first album in 17 years last week, has found itself in a legal tussle with soft drink giant Dr Pepper over a promotion turned awry.
Dr Pepper rolled out a marketing campaign in March promising a "free soda" to "everyone in America" on one condition -- Axl Rose, lead singer and frontman for Guns N' Roses, had to "finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, 'Chinese Democracy,' in 2008."
Guns N' Roses, often called GN'R by its fans, released the album last week. And Dr Pepper followed through, posting a coupon on its Web site for a can of soda. There was one catch: fans had 24 hours to go the Web site and print out the coupon.
So many GN'R fans -- and, no doubt, fans of free stuff in general -- tried to get the coupon that they choked the site and it crashed. Disgruntled and downright ticked off, some blamed the band.
"When you go on the blogs and you read the responses from the fans, they associated Axl with this promotion ... and blame him for the fact that they didn't get their free soda," said GN'R lawyer Laurie Soriano.
That's when GN'R became GN'RN'L. Soriano fired off a letter to Dr P. No one is LOL.
Her letter asked the soft drink company to make good on its offer. She has yet to hear back, Soriano said this week.
"We've gone public with the fact that we are not involved but are trying to clean up the mess," Soriano told CNN.
Dr Pepper told CNN it had "taken great steps" to keep up its end of the bargain. It said it extended the window for the giveaway from 24 to 42 hours, added a toll-free line to handle consumer requests for the coupons and set up an interactive voice recorder to accept coupon requests. None of those measures are still in effect.
"Additionally," the company said in a written statement, "for those who contacted us in the week after the giveaway about difficulties requesting the coupon, we continued to offer free coupons to address any problems they may have encountered."
That may be so, but the band still wants an apology.
"The door to a lawsuit being filed is always open until the fans are taken care of and Dr Pepper has done the right thing," Soriano told CNN.
The band may have other concerns. "Chinese Democracy" received mixed notices upon its release, and some bloggers are blaming Axl Rose for the new album's reception.
"The album was beaten to the top of the UK charts by The Killers' 'Day And Age' on Sunday," the British music news site NME.com said Tuesday in a segment labeled Today's Top Gossip. "Sources have said that record bosses are fuming because Rose has been AWOL for the last two months -- meaning he hasn't done any promotional work for the album."
Showing posts with label free dr pepper coupon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free dr pepper coupon. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Free Dr Pepper (courtesy of Guns n' Roses)
Get yourself a free Dr Pepper coupon from Dr Pepper's website (courtesy of Guns N' Roses).
To claim your free Dr Pepper coupon click here.
The US band's first album of original material since 1991's "Use Your Illusion I" and "II", the arrival of "Chinese Democracy" comes after a tortuous gestation that had become something of a running joke in the music industry.
Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, 46, is the only member of the band's original line-up to feature on the new album, which will feature 14 tracks and is being hyped as a milestone in rock n' roll.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1985, Guns N'Roses went on to become one of the biggest bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, their 1987 album "Appetite for Destruction" becoming a seminal work.
At the height of their fame the group were regularly selling out 80,000-seater arenas and album sales to date have topped more than 90 million.
But since the release of their last studio album in 1993 -- the controversial collection of covers "The Spaghetti Incident?" -- the music industry has changed beyond recognition.
Vinyl, in its dying days in 1993, is long gone. It's successor, compact discs, is now being overtaken by music purchased over the Internet and downloaded to Mp3 players.
The marketing of "Chinese Democracy" reflects the changing face of the music industry. The album was streamed on social networking site MySpace ahead of its formal release and one track was released via a video game. The album itself is being sold exclusively through the Best Buy electronic goods store.
In terms of time and money, "Chinese Democracy" is already exceptional. A total of 14 studios have been used to help produce its 14 tracks. The New York Times in 2005 described the album as the "most expensive album never made," estimating its cost at 13 million dollars.
Much of the excruciating development can be traced back to the notoriously difficult temperament of front-man Rose, who has had enough band members to form a soccer team, substitutes included.
"Axl Rose has shown total disregard for fans, the system, he's chosen to play by a strange set of rules that are only known to him," said Daily Variety associate editor Phil Gallo.
According to Gallo, the band remains relevant because "there's an absence of hard rock bands with star power, with very charismatic persons in front."
"Guns N'Roses still make a difference. They have lots songs that stood the test of time and get played in football stadiums and make it on to the radio, they're a key part of classic rock in the States.
"Axl Rose's celebrity has still relevance. They were a football stadium band, they could play 60-80000 people every single night."
Early reviews of "Chinese Democracy" have been mixed.
Rolling Stone described the album simply as a "great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record. In other words, it sounds a lot like the Guns N' Roses you know."
But the New York Times offered a more withering assessment. While acknowledging the "bursts of remarkable musicianship," the paper described the album as the "Titanic of rock albums: the ship, not the movie."
"It's outsize, lavish, obsessive, technologically advanced and, all too clearly, the end of an era," the Times said.
"It's also a shipwreck, capsized by pretensions and top-heavy production. In its 14 songs there are glimpses of heartfelt ferocity and despair, along with bursts of remarkable musicianship.
"But they are overwhelmed by countless layers of studio diddling and a tone of curdled self-pity. The album concludes with five bombastic power ballads in a row."
Meanwhile, the release of "Chinese Democracy" has proved to be expensive for makers of the popular US soft drink Dr Pepper, who promised a free can of the soda for everyone in America if the album was released before the end of 2008.
The company has proved as good as its word, offering a free coupon on its website for a 24-hour period from Sunday.
To claim your free Dr Pepper coupon click here.
The US band's first album of original material since 1991's "Use Your Illusion I" and "II", the arrival of "Chinese Democracy" comes after a tortuous gestation that had become something of a running joke in the music industry.
Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, 46, is the only member of the band's original line-up to feature on the new album, which will feature 14 tracks and is being hyped as a milestone in rock n' roll.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1985, Guns N'Roses went on to become one of the biggest bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, their 1987 album "Appetite for Destruction" becoming a seminal work.
At the height of their fame the group were regularly selling out 80,000-seater arenas and album sales to date have topped more than 90 million.
But since the release of their last studio album in 1993 -- the controversial collection of covers "The Spaghetti Incident?" -- the music industry has changed beyond recognition.
Vinyl, in its dying days in 1993, is long gone. It's successor, compact discs, is now being overtaken by music purchased over the Internet and downloaded to Mp3 players.
The marketing of "Chinese Democracy" reflects the changing face of the music industry. The album was streamed on social networking site MySpace ahead of its formal release and one track was released via a video game. The album itself is being sold exclusively through the Best Buy electronic goods store.
In terms of time and money, "Chinese Democracy" is already exceptional. A total of 14 studios have been used to help produce its 14 tracks. The New York Times in 2005 described the album as the "most expensive album never made," estimating its cost at 13 million dollars.
Much of the excruciating development can be traced back to the notoriously difficult temperament of front-man Rose, who has had enough band members to form a soccer team, substitutes included.
"Axl Rose has shown total disregard for fans, the system, he's chosen to play by a strange set of rules that are only known to him," said Daily Variety associate editor Phil Gallo.
According to Gallo, the band remains relevant because "there's an absence of hard rock bands with star power, with very charismatic persons in front."
"Guns N'Roses still make a difference. They have lots songs that stood the test of time and get played in football stadiums and make it on to the radio, they're a key part of classic rock in the States.
"Axl Rose's celebrity has still relevance. They were a football stadium band, they could play 60-80000 people every single night."
Early reviews of "Chinese Democracy" have been mixed.
Rolling Stone described the album simply as a "great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record. In other words, it sounds a lot like the Guns N' Roses you know."
But the New York Times offered a more withering assessment. While acknowledging the "bursts of remarkable musicianship," the paper described the album as the "Titanic of rock albums: the ship, not the movie."
"It's outsize, lavish, obsessive, technologically advanced and, all too clearly, the end of an era," the Times said.
"It's also a shipwreck, capsized by pretensions and top-heavy production. In its 14 songs there are glimpses of heartfelt ferocity and despair, along with bursts of remarkable musicianship.
"But they are overwhelmed by countless layers of studio diddling and a tone of curdled self-pity. The album concludes with five bombastic power ballads in a row."
Meanwhile, the release of "Chinese Democracy" has proved to be expensive for makers of the popular US soft drink Dr Pepper, who promised a free can of the soda for everyone in America if the album was released before the end of 2008.
The company has proved as good as its word, offering a free coupon on its website for a 24-hour period from Sunday.
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