Things aren’t exactly looking up for the lawsuit that Sony filed with Bridgestone. A few days ago, the game publisher stated that the tire company misused one of Sony’s most recognizable actors for their ad, which stated that those who purchased tires from them would get a Nintendo Wii.
The actor in question is Jerry Lambert, who, for several years, portrayed fictional Sony exec Kevin Butler, much to the delight of fans. However, with the new Bridgestone ad, many of those gamers felt betrayed, and Sony followed suit.
Bridgestone recently replied to the lawsuit, stating that Butler didn’t actually appear in the ad. “Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer. Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial,” stated the company.
It’s hard to say who’s in the right here. Sony may be overreacting in the suit (and thus killing off one of their best ad campaigns), but Bridgestone, in an early run of the commercial, definitely appears to be using him the wrong way. We’ll have to see where this goes…
