Commercial Alert criticizes Alcatel over Gehrig ad

[Gary Ruskin]

Commercial Alert				April 23, 2001

Following is Commercial Alert's news release about Alcatel's use of dead
heroes to sell telecommunications equipment.

NEWS RELEASE
        				
For Immediate Release: 	For More Information Contact:
Monday, April 23, 2001 	Gary Ruskin (503) 295-6916
        
Commercial Alert Criticizes Alcatel Over Gehrig Ad

Commercial Alert criticized French telecommunications company Alcatel
for "dragging our heroes through the commercial muck" by using Lou
Gehrig's famous farewell speech in their advertisements.
        
The company already has released an ad using a doctored version of
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.  Now, according to USA
Today, it plans to release an ad enlisting Lou Gehrig, the former New
York Yankee great.  The ad will include a doctored clip of Gehrig's
famous 1939 farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, in which he declared,
while dying of an incurable disease, that he was the "luckiest man on
the face of the Earth"
        
"Alcatel is demonstrating that it is not worthy to invoke the names of
genuine heros such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Lou Gehrig," said Gary
Ruskin, Executive Director of Commercial Alert.  "If Alcatel thinks it
brings credit upon itself by ripping off dead heroes and reducing them
to the level of Joe Isuzu and the Taco Bell Chihuahua, it needs to think
a little harder."
        
Alcatel faced widespread criticism recently for its ads using Martin
Luther King Jr. and his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. "To advertisers
like Alcatel, nothing is sacred besides the dollar," Ruskin said. 
"They'll stoop to any depth, despoil any hero just to make a buck."
        
Ralph Nader founded Commercial Alert in 1998 to keep the commercial
culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting
children and subverting the higher values of family, community,
environmental integrity and democracy.  Commercial Alert's website is at
<http://www.commercialalert.org>.
        
<----release ends here---->

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
Complain to Alcatel about their use of dead heroes in ads.  Contact Brad
D. Burns, Senior VP Communications, Alcatel Americas. His phone is (972)
519-2609 and email is <bradford.burns@usa.alcatel.com>.  

BACKGROUND:
Following is an article from the April 17 edition of USA Today.

Alcatel to use Gehrig's famous farewell in ad 
by Michael McCarthy 

Alcatel, the French telecommunications company that outraged some civil
rights leaders for using the late Martin Luther King Jr. in a national
ad, plans to rise again with Lou Gehrig in a new TV commercial. 

Alcatel is licensing the rights to Gehrig's famous 1939 farewell speech
at Yankee Stadium. In the tearful goodbye, he called himself "the
luckiest man on the face of the Earth" despite the advance of the fatal
disease that bears his name, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. 

It is believed Alcatel will alter the Iron Horse's speech the same way
it altered King's landmark 1963 "I Have A Dream" address: by digitally
removing the spectators. 

Attorney George Pollack, longtime executor of the Gehrig estate,
confirmed signing off on a deal for Alcatel to use the speech. "I hope
and wish they do as good a campaign for Lou as they did for Dr. King,"
says Pollack, 86. He believes Alcatel is paying the "largest fee" ever
to use Gehrig's image. Mark Roesler, CEO of CMG Worldwide, which handles
offers for the estate, says Alcatel is paying "six figures." 

The Gehrig estate gets to OK the commercial before it airs. "That's a
necessary condition of any deal," Pollack says. Most of the money goes
to charities named by Gehrig's late widow, Eleanor, such as the Eleanor
and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Research Center in New York. 

Brad Burns, senior vice president of communications for Alcatel Americas
in Plano, Texas, would not confirm the Gehrig spot. He says Alcatel will
use more famous images in the "Speeches" campaign. "This is not just a
Dr. King campaign. We will roll out new (ads) soon," Burns says. Arnold
Worldwide, Boston creates the ads. 

The use of dead celebrities in ads is causing controversy. Critics call
it macabre commercial exploitation. Defenders say that heirs and estates
have a right to use their property as they see fit. Some figures make
more money dead than alive. 

Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, believes Alcatel is turning King's
dream into an ad nightmare. The group wants Alcatel to pull the TV and
print ads, even though the King family approved the ads, Burns says. 

Burns argues the ads "bring King's message to a new generation."
Commercial Alert Director Gary Ruskin disagrees: "Alcatel is cheapening
a great man and a great speech." 

Despite protests, images of the dead seem to be a trend. A half-dozen
new Citigroup ads star more dead icons than live ones, including John
Lennon, Louis Armstrong, Helen Keller and Audrey Hepburn. And AIG is
using baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson in an ad. 

"Our business is picking up," says CMG's Roesler, whose company makes
more than $ 25 million annually selling rights to more than 200
celebrities such as Gehrig, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. 

What's their appeal? "They won't get arrested next week, go on the
disabled list or suffer three flops in a row. We know what we're
getting," says Ryan Schinman, head of Platinum Rye Entertainment, which
matches endorsers with corporate clients. 

<-----article ends here------>

Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically via the
commercial-alert mailing list <commercial-alert@lists.essential.org>. 

To subscribe to the commercial-alert mailing list, go to
<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/commercial-alert> or send
the word "subscribe" to <alert@essential.org>.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
-- 
Gary Ruskin | gary@essential.org
Commercial Alert | Congressional Accountability Project
http://www.commercialalert.org | http://www.congressproject.org
phone: 202.296.2787 or 503.295.6916