You knew it was going to happen sooner or later. American Idol 2 winner, Ruben is suing the makers of those gawd-awful shirts 205 shirt he wore on the show.
He had this good guy image on the show so I’m wonder if this’ll affect the way people think of him. I know I’m a bit surprised that he’s suing them. I also wonder what the chances are of winning this lawsuit? They didn’t have a contract and he willingly wore their shirts…free shirts while on the show. He didn’t seem to have any problem with them when he was a nobody. It sounds like he’s getting a bit of the big head now that he won AI.
Sounds odd for Ruben. I was all for the guy from the first time he appeared, as much for his pride in coming from Birmingham as for his obvious talent. I also thought he had his shit together and was quite capable, with his mother and brother as backup, to avoid getting into this type of nonsense.
After the show was over I lost touch with Ruben (Clay, too – in fact all of them) so I have been curious how his career has been progressing. This is saddening, but not surprising.
I dunno. Look up “205 flava” (the shirt manufacturer) in google, and their line says “Get hot gear from 205Flava. As seen on the New American Idol Ruben Studdard.” Go to the web site and see his picture.
If he’s not seeing any money from that, he sure should be.
This is the sort of thing where the law runs headlong into common sense.
Common sense wants to smack Ruben upside the head and say “hey dummy, why do you think they were giving you those jerseys for free? For their health? Of course they were hoping you’d do well in the competition and could bank on your image to sell their products.”
The law, on the other hand, is decidedly on Ruben’s side. I doubt there’s sufficient evidence to demonstrate a free-jerseys-for-exposure oral contract, much less the specific terms of such a contract if it existed (to what extent can they use his image? for how long?). And assuming no agreement exists, he is entitled to compensation for the use of his image.
The tragic lesson for business owners: don’t try to do something nice without consulting a lawyer.
Nice? They obviously gave him the jersey to sell their wares. Where does ‘nice’ enter into it?
Of course they are still using his likeness to sell shirts, and Ruben should get some of that money. The company is basically STILL using Ruben as an advertisment without paying him for it.
Yes, “nice.” It’s nice for a company to give a local nobody a little bit of help in becoming a somebody, even if they hope to gain from that help in the future. I also think it’s nice when my local dentist sponsors a little league team, even though he may pick up a patient or two who see his little ad on the back of their jerseys.
They should’ve nailed all this down in the beginning, though. I’m sure the owners thought this was a decent, mutually-beneficial arrangement that could be done on a handshake without spelling out specifics. Big mistake.
If their goal was to take a nobody and make him into a somebody, then that would have been ‘nice’. I doubt that was the goal, though. I’m sure the goal was to milk this guy’s popularity for all it was worth.
The two aren’t mutually exclusive, f’rcryinoutloud. They did help him become a somebody in their own small way, by giving him a trademark look during the competition. And they supplied him with jerseys when he was still a face in the crowd, long before he had any “popularity” to milk (in fact, Ruben dropped the jerseys in the later stages of the competition).
Did they want to be nice by helping out a local nobody, or did they want to profit? The answer is most likely “both.”
And they probably (and reasonably) assumed that Ruben would let them use his name and image in exchange for the free jerseys – that that was an implied condition of the deal. But they failed to nail that down, and got burned.
Sorry, Dewey, I fail to see how giving him some free jerseys is helping him. They didn’t sponsor voice lessons or something. They found out someone was going to be on television and shot for some cheap advertising.
It’s not like Ruben needed the jerseys like a Little League player needs the dentist’s sponsorship in order to compete. And since he dropped the jerseys, they probably werent’ helping much. I didn’t watch the show more than an episode or two, but I don’t recall anyone saying how Ruben stood out because he had a “trademark look.” He looked just like any other R&B or hip-hop performer that wears jerseys.
That said, if the company had stopped using his image after he asked them to stop then I wouldn’t support Ruben. But since they didn’t, I hope he gets some money off of him.