What are the legal implications of an advertising promo? A tiff between former executive producers of The Sopranos and David Chase, the show’s creator, may be causing problems for a new series on CBS. The problem appears to have been resolved amicably, but if it were to go before a judge what might the outcome have been?
The issue at hand is the wording of a promotional tagline used to advertise the new CBS series Blue Bloods. It stars Tom Selleck and was created by Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green, a married couple who were longtime executive producers on the HBO hit The Sopranos. The two were producers for 69 out of a total of 85 episodes, and were with the show from its beginning until their departure prior to the final season. At the time, the couple said their departure was amicable, although sources close to the situation now say that Chase wanted them off the show. Regardless of the reason for leaving, Burgess and Green were successful producers who were heavily sought after within the industry, so they easily moved onto other work. There was seemingly no ill will between either them or David Chase.
That peaceful façade began to crumble last week when CBS released a trailer for the couple’s new series Blue Bloods. The network touted the new series as from “the executive producers of The Sopranos.” They were subsequently sent a request from HBO lawyers to stop using that phrase to advertise their new series. The rationale was that the use of “the” made it appear that Burgess and Green were the only executive producers on the famed HBO series. HBO was using semantics in a way to rival Bill Clinton.
CBS removed the line from their trailers; however, the question is was this a legally valid complaint or a mere request that the offending party chose to honor? The closest this comes to illegality is fraud, but since it would require proving injury to the victim it seems unlikely to be brought to court. Even worse to a potential case is that a fraud allegation requires proof of an intent to deceive the victim. Since HBO is touting one of their new dramas, Boardwalk Empire, as being from the “Emmy-award winning writer of The Sopranos,” while, much like Burgess and Green, Terrence Winter was only one of many folks who held that title on David Chase’s most famous show.
CBS did pull the offending tagline, mostly as professional courtesy, but had they refused to back down to a threatening letter they would likely have prevailed in a courtroom. And since legal proceedings would have served as a major form of advertising it does seem strange they were so willing to capitulate. Perhaps the animosity between the creative staff of The Sopranos was so great that Burgess and Green would rather reword the phrase than face their former boss in court.
Posted by Becky on June 4, 2010 at 2:41pm.
