Let me tell you all something: as an unabashed Sony supporter, I of course love Kevin Butler. I thought that character and ad campaign were brilliant from the very first time I saw it. I love the KB character so much, this picture currently resides next to my PS3:
Look at it! With a stick!
Of course Kevin Butler is just a character, and he is portrayed with awesomeness by an actor named Jerry Lambert. Lately, I had seen Lambert in the background of a few Bridgestone Tire ads as one of the techs experimenting with new Bridgestone technology. Imagine my shock and surprise though when in one of their latest ads, Bridgestone had Lambert thoroughly enjoying a playing a video game. Problem was the game was Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii.
My first thought was disbelief. Butler is arguably the greatest Sony “mascot” since Crash Bandicoot was trespassing at Nintendo’s offices. But there he was, shilling a 5-year old kart racing game on a competing console. My second thought: someone’s getting sued over this. Turns out I was right.
As first reported on NeoGaf, Sony has filed suit against both Bridgestone and Wildcat Creek Inc, a marketing agency which Lambert is president of. To sum the suit up in short, Sony is alleging Lambert and the Butler character are so integrally tied to the PlayStation brand that seeing him in this commercial causes marketplace confusion and damages their brand, especially considering they will be releasing their own kart racer in just a few weeks, Little Big Karting, which has a pre-order bonus of a certain fictional Sony Vice President. Bridgestone has replaced the ad with a new version without Lambert, but I’m sure the damage has already been done in Sony’s eyes.
I also learned from this that apparently Lambert’s contract with Sony is done, which if true totally sucks. Like I said, the KB character is the most genius marketing the PlayStation brand has ever done, and those Sony commercials simply won’t be the same without him. That said, Sony is totally in the right to do this. The fact that my first reaction to seeing the commercial was “WTF!”, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one, shows their stance here has some merit, and they owe it to themselves to protect their brand. Both Bridgestone and Lambert should’ve used their heads a little more before filming the Wii ad and erred on the side of caution, even if they might not have technically have done anything wrong, as the commercial didn’t air until after the expiration of Lambert’s Soy contract.
If this is the end of the Kevin Butler, let’s pour one out by watching some of the best commercials starring the VP of everything.