Members of the original funk band War say they can’t be friends with PepsiCo.
They’re suing the soft drink maker for more than US$10 million, saying it did not negotiate with them to use their song Why Can’t We Be Friends? in a new commercial.
Even if PepsiCo and its agencies got rights from the music’s publishers or anyone else who owns them, lawyers Ken Freundlich and Max Sprecher said the company should have negotiated with the artists too.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles, some of the group’s original members and a relative said they learned the 1975 hit was in the ad for Pepsi MAX only when the commercials launched in July.
PepsiCo said in a statement it believes the lawsuit has no merit.
“Pepsi has a long history of partnering with iconic celebrities and musicians and we value our relationship with the music and entertainment industry,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.
A spokesman for ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day declined to comment on Thursday, referring all questions to PepsiCo.
The ad is part of a campaign pushing the no-calorie Pepsi MAX.
The War members have asked for a jury trial and “confiscation of unlawful profits” in amount to be determined.
Original members listed in the lawsuit are Harold Brown, Lee Oskar Levitin, Howard Scott, and Morris Dickerson. Laurian Miller, daughter of Charles Miller, is also a plaintiff.
“Pepsi is selling its billion-dollar brand based on their voices and they have to pay for it,” Freundlich said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS