• New York Post, Friday, July 24, 2009 10:51 AM

Outspoken iconoclast he may be, but the Post's headline suggests that U2 lead singer Bono is just plain "off his rocker" for breaking one of marketing's cardinal rules: "Promote your own interests, not a competitor's."

Paul Tharp reports that Bono is a co-founder of Elevation Partners, which has invested $435 million into smartphone maker Palm. At the same time, he's appearing in commercials for its archrival Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, as part of a tie-in coinciding with the release of U2's latest album, "No Line on the Horizon."

Tharp questions whether the move might make Bono susceptible to lawsuits from other Palm investors. "Queries to his manager about why he would plug an enemy's product weren't immediately answered," he reports.

Read the whole story at New York Post »