You didn’t hear it here first. In fact, you’ve probably already heard it online, on the radio, on tv, and in print. In March, Dr. Pepper sent out a press release stating that if Axl Rose (Guns N’ Roses leadman) released his record, Chinese Democracy, in 2008 that they would give a free can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in America – except former GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead. The album had been in development for well over a decade due to Rose’s tired rock star antics.
The story died down after a few weeks of viral buzz and media attention, but it resurfaced when the record was indeed released last month. In an attempt to comply with their end of the bargain, Dr. Pepper allowed customers to visit the Dr. Pepper Web Site within a 24-hour period to claim a coupon worthy of one can of soda. The site eventually crashed due to an inability to handle the flurry of hits it was receiving. Dr. Pepper extended the window of opportunity an extra 24 hours because of the chaos.
Now, Rose is threatening legal action. He’s claiming not only did Dr. Pepper not hold up their end of the bargain, but that this stunt “ruined” the release day of their new album.
Dr. Pepper’s reply to legal threats by Rose and his lawyer:
“We simply commented on the delayed release of Chinese Democracy and openly encouraged the band to release it before the end of the year. Axl even expressed support for our efforts earlier in the year. We are disappointed that GNR’s lawyers are turning a fun giveaway into a legal dispute.”
In my opinion, this debacle of a marketing campaign benefited both parties. Rose is living in paradise city because of the publicity that has bolstered his album to the No. 3 selling record in America. Dr. Pepper’s case is more interesting. Some have criticized Dr. Pepper saying that in the end, Dr. Pepper looked ridiculous. An article in Brandweek, one of my favorite sources for branding news, said “All in all, they came off looking pretty dumb.”
This, however, simply isn’t true. From a marketing stand point, Dr. Pepper has been a pop culture topic for almost an entire year. The mocking press release has traversed through the online community and has appeared in almost every major media outlet at some point since its release. This is the kind of marketing you can’t pay for.
Dr. Pepper had a plan all along. They didn’t wake up one day and say “I despise Guns N’ Roses. Let’s send out a press release to mock the production of their latest album on behalf of our company.” Instead, they wanted to reach their target consumers by producing a press release that they would find humorous – giving them a brand image of young and fresh. I’m not sure if they really thought that this would fuel the band to finish the album, but the end result was almost a year’s worth of publicity for Chinese Democracy and Dr. Pepper.
If anything is in order here, Axl Rose should be thanking Dr. Pepper’s marketing team for sending out the press release that eventually led to all of this buzz. If it wasn’t for them, I’d be willing to bet you a Dr. Pepper that Chinese Democracy wouldn’t be listed as the No. 3 selling record in America right now.
