Lawyer For Guns N' Roses: Be Careful What You Promise

By Eriq Gardner

Guns N' Roses has done the unthinkable and finally released "Chinese Democracy," fifteen years and many jokes in the making.

Now a lawyer for the band wants to take the fizzle out of Dr. Pepper, demanding the soda maker make good on its cynical advertising campaign to give away a free soda to any American if the long-awaited album came out before the end of 2008. (The band wasn't involved in the promotion.)

Billboard reports that Alan Gutman, a lawyer based in Beverly Hills, has written a letter to Dr. Pepper Snapple Group president and CEO Larry Young, calling the advertising campaign an "unmitigated disaster which defrauded customers."

After "Chinese Democracy" came out, fans remembered the offer and went to Dr. Pepper's website for coupons, but the servers were crashed. The company gave fans two days to redeem, an offer that Grubman says is insufficient. He wants the company to extend the period for the offer and full-page apologies in the nation's five largest newspapers.