By now everyone knows that Dr. Pepper famously made a promise to the public that if Chinese Democracy was released this year they would give the nation a free drink. At the time the odds of the much rumored and 15 years delayed album actually arriving in stores for sale were slim at best. But Guns 'n Roses finally got it out, and Dr. Pepper decided to make good on their promise - as I mentioned in a prior post.
The problem for Dr. Pepper is that everyone paid attention to their offer. There was such a rush on their site that it crashed. They then extended their offer by 24 hours. But it seems that the company's website was still unable to handle the demand, or was otherwise disabled for most of the extension time. This is where Axl Rose comes in.
Rose has now gotten his lawyer to jump into the fray and demand that Dr. Pepper do more to live up to their word. He is insiting that Dr. Pepper make good for all the people that were unable to receive the coupon that would provide a free 20 oz drink of their products. And Rose wants the company to take out full page ads apologizing for the problems encountered, and the use of Guns 'n Roses' as a publicity stunt.
If all of these things are not done, then Axl Rose plans on some form of lawsuit to get paid.
Now who is using who to get paid, make sales, and drum up publicity? It makes me wonder what the sales numbers are really going to look like. According to Newsday
"..."Chinese Democracy" is a good effort and it would have seemed even better if it came out in a decent amount of time, say, you know, a decade ago....
That "Chinese Democracy" came out at all is a monument to Rose's artistic vision and his belief in himself. But all its excesses and its occasional lack of focus also serve as a testament to the kind of ridiculous spending and star-coddling that led to the music industry's current sales-dropping predicament. All along the line, this project would have benefited from someone telling Rose "no," but any check on him came too late."
Mark Savage at the BBC had a bit more positive take on the album
"This record is an uncompromising, fully-focused, hard rock monster.
At times, it will rattle the rafters with its ferocious riffs. At others, you will laugh out loud at the ridiculously overblown melodrama.
In other words, it's business as usual for Guns N' Roses."
And of course there is Rolling Stone
"Let's get right to it: The first Guns n' Roses album of new, original songs since the first Bush administration is a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record...
You may debate whether any rock record is worth that extreme self-indulgence. Actually, the most rock & roll thing about Chinese Democracy is he doesn't care if you do."
In every review, positive or not, there is the consistent thought that this album would have been a stellar release a decade ago. Everyone seems to agree that there are several songs that relive the glory of the past that Guns n' Roses enjoyed. But overall the final thoughts seem to say mixed things. And that's never wonderful for sales.
So I expect that this bruhha over Dr. Pepper is just a way to either gain more record sales, or more likely an attempt to get Dr. Pepper to dole out some cash in a settlement so as to recoup some of the $11 million spent on creating Chinese Democracy. In effect it gives me pause on just how good the album is, which I admit I have not heard yet.
So in the end what do you think? Is Axl Rose protecting his property as he did when he had blogger Kevin Cogill arrested, or is it to just make some money in the face of low sales?
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