Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

Dr Pepper to deliver on
free-soda promise

Get a coupon for a free soda on
Sunday

Last Edited: Friday, 21 Nov 2008, 7:03 AM CST
Created On: Thursday, 20 Nov 2008, 8:01 PM CST

    * By LILY FU, Special Contributor
LOS ANGELES -  Dr Pepper is making good on its promise to give out free sodas now that Guns N' Roses will be releasing its infamously delayed album, "  Chinese Democracy ," on Nov. 23.

"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site . They will be honored until Feb. 28.

Work on "Chinese Democracy" began back in 1994. But soon after, frontman Axl Rose's reported authoritarian grip on the project pushed out members of the band, including lead guitarist, Slash, who went on to join the band Velvet Revolver (which is now on indefinite hiatus).

Fourteen years, 14 recording studios, 14 tracks and various band members later, the album will go on sale Sunday at Best Buy stores.
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/strange/offbeat_losangeles_dr_pepper_112020082100038

Axl takes a pop at 'free' drink pledge by Dr Pepper

Singer long-awaited album leads to legal challenge

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles
Saturday, 29 November 2008

t has divided critics, been banned by the Chinese government and was launched in a whirlwind of chaos, acrimony and excess. Now Axl Rose's latest record has kept faith with another rock'n'roll tradition: it has spawned its first lawsuit.

The album Chinese Democracy, which Rose laboured over for more than 14 years before releasing it to his eager public on Sunday, is at the centre of an unlikely dispute between the famously-eccentric singer and the makers of Dr Pepper.

Rose is suing the soft drinks manufacturer for a public apology, and undisclosed damages, alleging that it failed to honour a bizarre promise to celebrate his record's release by giving a free serving of Dr Pepper to everyone in America.

Back in March, in a PR stunt it may now regret, the firm announced that it would hand out 20-ounce containers of its product to the entire nation, should Guns N' Roses finally keep to a deadline and complete their comeback record by the end of 2008. At the time, it looked like a safe bet: Chinese Democracy had been delayed so many times that its production had become a running joke in the music industry – unless, that is, you happened to work for the record label Universal, who for a decade-and-a-half had subsidised studio fees to the tune of $13m (£8.5m), or roughly $928,571 per song.

But then, the unthinkable happened: Rose managed to make good with his pledge, and finished the album in time for Christmas. Though sales figures are not available until Monday, analysts expect it to sell between 300,000 and half a million copies this week.

Dr Pepper, however, experienced trouble sticking to its pledge. The company's website was so swamped that it repeatedly crashed during the 24 hours where fans could download vouchers entitling them to free drinks.

Rose, whose carefully-cultivated misanthropic image has seen him fall out with every member of his band's original line-up, has now responded by firing a legal complaint to the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. "The redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, 'ruined' the day of Chinese Democracy's release," wrote his lawyer, Alan Gutman. "Now it is time to clean up the mess."

Rose has demanded a full-page apology in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, together with an expanded time period for punters to redeem the soda and "an appropriate payment to our clients for the unauthorised use and abuse of their publicity and intellectual property rights".

A spokesman for Dr Pepper declined to respond to the detail of Rose's complaint, or his subsequent demands, simply saying it was "a fun giveaway" that the company was perfectly entitled to launch, and took great steps to fulfill.

The singer, a former choirboy with a troubled childhood, has never pandered to other people's agendas. In recent years, the reclusive star has worked his way through eight guitarists (including the group's iconic original member Slash, who left in the mid-1990s, and Brian May of Queen) and, for a time, installed a chicken coop in his recording studio. He has declined all requests for interviews related to this week's launch, and is yet to appear in public since the record hit shelves. He also refused to change the album's title to appease China, which promptly banned it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/axl-takes-a-pop-at-free-drink-pledge-by-dr-pepper-1040265.html

Dr Pepper is Disappointed in Guns N' Roses     
Posted: 8:00 AM Dec 4, 2008
Last Updated: 8:00 AM Dec 4, 2008
Reporter: Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) - Dr Pepper says it's disappointed that Guns N' Roses' lawyers are "turning a fun giveaway into a legal dispute." The Dallas Business Journal quotes a Dr Pepper statement saying the
company simply commented on the delayed release of the GNR album "Chinese Democracy" and openly encouraged the band to release it before the end of the year. It says singer Axl Rose "even
expressed support for our efforts earlier in the year." Dr Pepper has been slammed with bad publicity since it offered to give a free Dr Pepper to everyone in America if "Chinese Democracy" came out
this year. Their Web site was jammed with requests, so many, that fans could not get through and Rose's lawyers are threatening legal action.

http://www.kbtx.com/thebuzz/headlines/35533054.html

I haven't heard anything about this until I just read.  I guess I am in the wrong generation.  I never drink that carbonated prune juice anyway.. ::MonkeyHaHa::

I don't drink DP either, Great Owl.  I was curious when I saw the news article claiming Dr. Pepper would give a free 20 oz. drink, when Guns n Roses released their album.  I have a teenager that mentioned trying to get the free DP, but said he thought the album wouldn't be so great.  There was just a give away not long ago for a free taco from Taco Bell and in the political forum  there are some threads that reference freebies to voters from the elections in the U.S. ., I think Starbucks was giving a 12 oz. coffee, among some of the give aways.