Bridgestone has responded to Sony’s claims that its commercials are ripping off of an old Playstation trope.
For years, Jerry Lambert was the quasi official spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment America. His persona “Kevin Butler” spread messages about the accessibility of the Playstation brand.
However, these days, Lambert is no longer associated with Sony commercials and has gone on scoring new acting deals. One such deal is a new advertising campaign with Bridgestone Tires.
That seems harmless enough, except for the fact that the company is currently running a promotion where customers can win a Nintendo Wii console. Lambert appears in commercials for this promotion, in a very similar persona as his Playstation-peddling alter ego.
As a result, Sony has filed a lawsuit against Bridgestone, as well as the advertising agency headed by Lambert.
This story made waves yesterday, and now Bridgestone has issued a response.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
Sony director of corporate communications Dan Race was quoted earlier as saying, “We invested significant resources in bringing the Kevin Butler character to life and he’s become an iconic personality directly associated with PlayStation products over the years. Use of the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation misappropriates Sony’s intellectual property, creates confusion in the market, and causes damage to Sony.”
