Usually celebrities employ their publicity rights to prevent others from cashing in on the celebrities’ name and public image, but musician Prince is facing the opposite problem – he already signed on to promote a product, but the company claims he did not do enough. Now it looks like Prince is going to have to pay the company $4 million for failing to live up to his end of the bargain.
In late 2004, Prince entered into a deal with Revelations Perfume & Cosmetic to create a scent named “3121,” which is the title of his 2006 album. Prince’s contract required him to promote the scent in his hometown of Minneapolis and on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Prince, however, was less than cooperative. He refused to give interviews about the scent and never attended in-store promotional events. Not only did Prince apparently not perform these promotional tasks, he did a complete 180 and told the company to stop using his name and likeness on 3121’s bottle.
Revelation sued Prince in 2008 in New York, and the judge in the case recently found in favor of Revelation, ordering the singer to pay the company $4 million. The $4 million represents damages and the sum that Revelation spent on marketing and promoting the fragrance.
There is certainly no shortage of marketing opportunities available to celebrities these days. As in Prince’s case, they can pick and choose which products to endorse, though, perhaps Prince should have been a little more careful about selecting a company and product that he was prepared to support. He signed a contract to use his celebrity to promote a product, so when he failed to perform as the contract required, a judge found him liable.
Klein Trial Lawyers – Los Angeles business litigation lawyers