Can advertisers use dead people however they wish

kirk.

There's adverts running in the UK featuring Albert Einstein promoting smart meters

Can they just do this I'm sure he'd turn in his grave the words they're putting in his mouth

L1011

No, they will be paying his estate to do that.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058270736/can-advertisers-use-dead-people-however-they-wish

All those adverts have a note at the bottom of the screen regarding the right to use the image.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119842859#Comment_119842859

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (in Israel) actually owns the rights to Einstein's image. He left it to them in his will.

And in 2012, they lost a case against General Motors for this ad that featured his likeness without authorisation:

https://www.cnbc.com/id/100186915

kirk.

Well that's the thing isn't it

Using a likeness hard one to stop

EmmetSpiceland

You've got poor old Vincent Price floating around in a toilet keg telling me about the horrors of an unfresh bowl!

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119842919#Comment_119842919

US laws on this sort of thing are incredibly weak compared to here.

kirk.

It just seems ridiculous having him promoting this stuff

He'd have an opinion of his his own on the matter which would probably be contrary to what he's saying

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058270736/can-advertisers-use-dead-people-however-they-wish

Spinning in his grave...

Connect a few wires and magnets and you've got free electricity, and probably broken a few of his equations, making him spin faster...

bnt

I remember the Estate of Fred Astaire threatened the band James when they made a song called “Fred Astaire”. Changing the title to “(Just Like) Fred Astaire” was sufficient to keep the Estate happy.

Capt'n Midnight

The selling of cadavers is for the most part unregulated by US law.

Bodies donated for medical research have been sold to the US Army and blown up to measure the effect of explosives. ... A special investigation by Reuters brought to light the figure of $5,893 (USD) was paid for each body, roughly £4,800 GBP. ..BRC sold over 20,000 body parts from 5000 persons over a decade.

So yes advertisers can use some dead people how they wish.

Quantum Erasure

Wouldn't you hate to donate your body to science, only to have it blown up on a US firing range, I'd rather have it left outside to rot under various conditions so the CSI lads could extrapolate time of death