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What did Buckethead do to be excluded from the "one free Dr. Pepper cola for every American" offer?


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I just got to know about this story, did a search, but searching for "Dr Pepper" just leads to the homecooking thread.. :D

Speaking about this offer: https://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-free-dr-pepper-for-everyone-except-slash-and-buckethead

So what did he do to be excluded? Just because "he took Slash's place"? But why is Slash excluded, too, then? And why weren't the other band members excluded as well then?

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52 minutes ago, Zurimor said:

I just got to know about this story, did a search, but searching for "Dr Pepper" just leads to the homecooking thread.. :D

Speaking about this offer: https://www.yelp.com/topic/chicago-free-dr-pepper-for-everyone-except-slash-and-buckethead

So what did he do to be excluded? Just because "he took Slash's place"? But why is Slash excluded, too, then? And why weren't the other band members excluded as well then?

don't worry Axl promised to share his Dr. Pepper with BH. 

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5 minutes ago, cooker said:

don't worry Axl promised to share his Dr. Pepper with BH. 

Yeah, I know, but that doesn't answer the question. 

And why did nobody care about Slash? Nobody to share his coke with him? ;)

Edited by Zurimor
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2 minutes ago, Zurimor said:

Yeah, I know, but that doesn't answer the question. 

And why did nobody care about Slash? Nobody to share his coke with him? ;)

I quess that it was just a marketing gag. 

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1 hour ago, -W.A.R- said:

I wouldn't even take one for free...Dr Pepper is horrible.

I don't get how anybody could like it.

 

It goes well with vodka and halved cherries, that's about the only time I'll drink Dr Pepper :lol:

 

To answer to OP I assume it's because Bucket had left the band by that point and wasn't on good terms with Axl.

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8 hours ago, -W.A.R- said:

I wouldn't even take one for free...Dr Pepper is horrible.

I don't get how anybody could like it.

I fucking love Dr. Pepper!  Even the diet version of it is pretty solid

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10 hours ago, -W.A.R- said:

I wouldn't even take one for free...Dr Pepper is horrible.

I don't get how anybody could like it.

Yup, only the sodas with chemicals are worse. My first Dr. Pepper was my last. But like Cola it was a actually sold as fake medicine back then...so the horrible taste was intended. 

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1 hour ago, Lies They Tell said:

Basically Dr. Pepper though that Axl hated Buckethead as much as he hated Slash. That's why he was excluded from the offer. Then Axl corrected the misunderstanding by promising to share his Dr. Pepper with BH.

Ah, that makes sense. Did some research myself and finally found this:

 

Quote

On March 26, 2008, the Dr Pepper company, for a then-unknown reason, publicly declared that it would give a free can of Dr Pepper to almost everyone in the United States if Axl Rose released his magnum opus Chinese Democracy sometime that year. To quote directly:

"...everyone in America, except estranged GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead, will receive a free can of Dr Pepper if the album ships some time -- anytime! -- in 2008."

According to Mojo magazine, Slash's reaction to this was a bit low-key:

"Yeah, someone sent me a text about that at 3:00 a.m. last night," Slash replied. "I thought, 'What kind of left-field shit is that?' It's pretty funny, actually. I guess Buckethead and I will just have to make do with Coca-Cola."

Axl Rose himself was equally baffled by the news, and responded with a press release of his own:

We are surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper with our album "Chinese Democracy," as for us, this came totally out of the blue. If there is any involvement with this promotion by our record company or others, we are unaware of such at this time. And as some of Buckethead's performances are on our album, I'll share my Dr Pepper with him.

In April, 2008, Nick Ragone and Chris Kooluris of the Ketchum public relations agency admitted in The Council of Public Relations Firms' "electronic publication" The Firm Voice that they were the architects of this surgically precise "disruptive PR" stunt:

Our concept: Encourage Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose to release his decade-in-the-making album Chinese Democracy by offering a free Dr Pepper to everyone in America if the album drops in 2008.

At first blush it might seem bizarre, but to date it's generated over 300 million impressions and has created an almost immeasurable connection between the brand and millions of GNR fans. Why? Because the brand put itself in the place of one of its subdemographics – music enthusiasts – and approached it from their perspective: what would they appreciate, find entertaining, and think is cool. And we made it authentic and funny by purposely excluding estranged GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead from the free Dr Pepper offer – a small but critical touch.

It worked so well that the reclusive Axl Rose actually thanked Dr Pepper on the official GNR Web site, and revealed that he would share his Dr Pepper with Buckethead because a few of his tracks were still on the album. That might seem like an insignificant thing to most people, but to the GNR fans we were targeting, this was news – big news. They appreciated what Dr Pepper had done, mostly because it was so unexpected, unusual, and out of the ordinary for a company. Their feedback to us (in the form of thousands of blog posts): who knew that Dr Pepper had a sense of humor?

Kooluris also bragged to PRWeek about how a blog Ketchum created specifically to publicize this offer was able to look like it had no corporate origins:

The agency also created a multimedia aspect to the effort, launching a blog (chinesedemocracywhen.blogspot.com) March 5 and using it to release Dr. Pepper's press release later that month.

The firm targeted men ages 18 to 34, Dr. Pepper's core customer demographic, with the endeavor, said Nick Ragone, SVP and director of Ketchum's communications media strategy group. The campaign's budget is undisclosed.

Brands such as Dr. Pepper face a challenge in creating blogs and other new media elements that appear consumer-generated, instead of looking like corporate Web sites, said Chris Kooluris, Ketchum senior media specialist.

“We didn't link to Dr. Pepper at all, and [the blog] looked so user-generated, it didn't look corporation-generated,” he said. “It had a sense of mystery, and it had a sense of satisfaction when you see that a big brand could be really cool if it stopped acting like a big brand and started acting like customers or fans.”

As fate would have it, Dr Pepper's unexpected offer might have been just the kick in the pants that Axl needed. Rumors about the album's imminent release started circulating in early October that year, and on October 22, Guns N' Roses' managers confirmed that Chinese Democracy would be released on November 23, 2008, exclusively at Best Buy stores. To their credit, the Dr Pepper company did not back out of their offer. The same day that the release date was confirmed, Dr Pepper announced how "every American" could get a free 20-ounce bottle of the drink on the house:

1. On the Nov. 23, 2008 release date, go to www.drpepper.com.
2. Register your information to receive a coupon for one free 20-oz. Dr Pepper.
3. When your coupon arrives, redeem it wherever Dr Pepper is sold.
4. Drink your Dr Pepper slowly to experience all 23 flavors. Dr’s orders.

Slash and Buckethead weren't excluded in that press release. Maybe all was forgiven?

In any event, on Sunday, November 23, the giveaway did not go smoothly, to put it mildly. Apparently, Dr Pepper's web site was not built to withstand the massive crush of people who bombarded its servers with requests for free soda. Todd Martens gave this report that day (complete with typos) for the Los Angeles Times music blog "Pop & Hiss":

But if you go to Dr. Pepper's actual website to try to snare a voucher for your free soda, good luck. You'll likely get a server error. As earlier reported, the free Dr. Pepper was supposed to be just a one-day promotion. Those who fill out a form will receive a coupon redeemable for one soda in 4 to 6 weeks, according to the site. But unprepared for the demand, will Dr. Pepper extend the promotion? Here's hoping, as Pop & Hiss doesn't want to see what happens to a country full of citizens who are denied their free soda.

Victor Godinez of The Dallas Morning News also detailed his struggle:

It looks like heavy traffic is bringing the site down to a crawl. I've been trying for about 20 minutes to get in.

Looks like it's kind of working, though, so get your beverage.

UPDATE: Wow, I had no idea this was going to become such an epic undertaking. For what it's worth, I was able to finally log on earlier today and register successfully for my coupon. But the site looks like it's hammered now.

In response to this server slowdown, the Dr Pepper company placed the following message on their web site during the latter part of the day:

We are sorry for any delays you have experienced in securing a coupon for a free Dr Pepper. While we had taken additional steps to meet the expected demand for our offer, the response has been greater than anticipated. To resolve this, we are increasing our server capacity and making a toll-free number available (1-888-DRPEPPER or 1-888-377-3773). In addition, as a result of the technical delays, we are extending the offer and will provide more information shortly.

Thanks for your patience and support.

The promotion, originally scheduled to run for 24 hours and end at 12 midnight Central Standard Time that Monday morning, was subsequently extended until 6:00 PM CST that Monday night. I couldn't tell you how effective the extension was though, as yours truly still had to endure several "Fatal error" messages before finally being able to enter my information--and even then I was never sure that the data had been accepted on the other side. Perhaps it never was, as I never did receive my coupon for a free 20-ounce bottle of Dr Pepper. Oh, well. I won't hold a grudge.

The same can't be said for Guns N' Roses, however. On November 25, their lawyer, Alan S. Gutman, sent a letter to Larry D. Young, the President of & CEO of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., which said in part:

The redemption scheme your company clumsily implemented for this offer was an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers and, in the eyes of vocal fans, "ruined" the day of Chinese Democracy's release. ... Further, what happened on November 23 was a complete fiasco. In what could only be characterized as reckless indifference or complete stupidity, Dr. Pepper [sic] was completely unprepared for the traffic to its site. Most visitors were greeted with error messages. Some people who got through to Dr. Pepper's servers were told to call a toll free number, few of whom got through. Many walked away angry as Dr. Pepper once again abused our clients' image and soured the momentous music event that was Chinese Democracy's release. [sic]

Mr. Gutman went on to demand that Dr Pepper run a full-page apology in several national newspapers, "expand the redemption window" for the free soda offer, and contact him "to discuss an appropriate payment to our clients for the unauthorized use and abuse of their publicity and intellectual property rights."

A few days later, in the beginning of December, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group issued a response which was much less litigious than Gutman's letter:

We are disappointed that GNR’s lawyers are turning a fun giveaway into a legal dispute. We simply commented on the delayed release of "Chinese Democracy" and openly encouraged the band to release it before the end of the year. Axl even expressed support for our efforts earlier this year.

When the album release was confirmed, Guns n’ Roses’ management team approached us and we openly shared our giveaway plans. For us, this has always been about the fans, and we’ve taken great steps to fulfill our offer, including:

• extending the window for the giveaway from 24 to 42 hours.
• adding a toll-free line to handle consumer requests for the coupons.
• setting up an interactive voice recorder to accept coupon requests.

Additionally, for those who contacted us in the week after the giveaway about difficulties requesting the coupon, we continued to offer free coupons to address any problems they may have encountered.

This was one of the largest responses we have ever received for a giveaway, and we’re happy we were able to satisfy the thirst of so many Dr Pepper fans.

We wish Guns n’ Roses the best with their album.

So far, that seems to have been the last word on the matter, but only time will tell.

(source:http://freenewyork.net/dpfaq.html)



(copied the complete article, not just the important part)

 

 

Edited by Zurimor
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