Indie Rockers Take On "Large, Sophisticated" Companies

For the past few days we've been hearing all about the drama involving Rolling Stone, Camel Cigarettes, and the "Indie Rock Universe". What started as a shady attempt at an advertisement resulted in Camel pulling "The Farm" promotion, indie bands demanding an apology, and has now led to a full blown lawsuit. Turns out you can't run an advertisement veiled as support for independent labels and artists if you don't tell them you're going to use their names first.


In the recent 40th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, they featured a four page fold out section from Camel toted "The Farm: Free Range Music" saying they're "committed to supporting and promoting independent record labels." The cartoon inside the fold out lists the names of artists listed under cheesy subcategories that we guess are part of the "universe" Camel created. Several Chicago based musicians were mentioned in the ad, including Andrew Bird and Fall Out Boy, along with many Touch 'n Go Record's artists. See the ad here. Artists and labels are angry because their names were used without permission, worse yet, they didn't even know about the ad. Um, maybe they wouldn't want to endorse a product that gives people cancer.


So, it's official. Xiu Xiu and Fucked Up have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 186 musical artists against Camel cigarettes' parent company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Rolling Stone, and their parent company Wenner Media. The complaint claims "unauthorized use of artists' names; unauthorized use of artist names for commercial advantage (right of publicity); and unfair business practices." Camel is already in trouble with several states because the ad violates the 1998 settlement that says tobacco companies can not pitch to minors, including using cartoons in advertisements. (remember Joe Camel?)


We're glad to see Xiu Xiu and Fucked Up sticking up for themselves. It's a sad thing to see a corporate giant take advantage of the little guy. We will be interested to see how this one unfolds. Who knows, maybe they will win a settlement big enough to feed themselves for more than a year.