This recent advertisement from GMC uses irony to catch attention, but it caught a little too much attention from certain parties: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel owns Einstein’s publicity rights and is suing them for the illegal use of the image. They claim the advertisement causes injury to their image rights and Einstein’s reputation. GM transfers the blame for the infringement to the firm they hired to do the advertisement, who they claimed to be ‘reputable’. This shows how important your research can be prior to outsourcing advertising.
Whether or not the university’s claims are valid, this also shows how firms are pushing the boundaries of what might be considered acceptable advertising techniques. While the ad may not disrespect Einstein’s reputation, and most people would just consider this humorous, it does show the extend a firm will go to try to be original and catch people’s attention. And some would say – all publicity is good publicity; even the media attention brought on by a lawsuit can be used to get a brand noticed and talked about.