Apple has this (IMHO) dorky “Think Different” ad campaign, where they show a picture of a famous movie director like Charlie Chaplin or Orson Welles, and, like, that’s supposed to make me rush right out and buy an Apple Computer or something?
Anyway, do they have to pay royalties to the estates of these (mostly dead) directors? Or does that come under the heading of “fair use”, because they’re celebrities?
I remember a big flap during a Coke (?) campaign a while back where they used the magic of computer graphics to stick Humphrey Bogart (Bing Crosby?) in the middle of a Coke song-and-dance routine. How did that ever come out? Did they have to pay royalties there, too?
I know that if you want to use Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley, you have to settle up with their estates in advance, but is that just because they happen to have particularly militant trustees, or are all celebrity estates like that?