• Ad Age , Tuesday, December 2, 2008 11 AM

There may be a lesson emerging here: Do not idly use a musician's name for gain. Their lawyers will find you, no matter what rock you roll under, and put your name in headlines.

First , there's the 50 Cent/Taco Bell mêlée.

Now Axl Rose's lawyers are very upset about Dr Pepper's promise to deliver a free can of soda to consumers who registered at a Web site for a coupon upon the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" album. Apparently, Dr Pepper's servers crashed under the demand of fans and not everyone who wanted a soda got a soda.

The campaign "brazenly" violated Axl Rose's rights, his lawyers say, and they are insisting that Dr Pepper run a full-page apology in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, as well as extend a redemption window for its free-soda offer.

Michael Bush's and Natalie Zmuda's article points out, however, that Rose seemed to be hunky-dory with the arrangement in March when he wrote on his Web site: "We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper with our album 'Chinese Democracy." Didn't Axl's mother warn him that anything you write on the Internet never goes away ?

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