Controversy Over DISH Network Caliendo Ad Campaign

Back in February, we wrote about DISH Network’s ad campaign featuring comedian Frank Caliendo. In the ads, Caliendo promotes the company while impersonating the President, John Madden, Charles Barkley and others.

Evidently, the ads didn’t sit well with Madden and Barkley, who threatened to take legal action against EchoStar. In response, the company went to court, asking for a declaratory judgement that the ad spots were legal and didn’t infringe on any trademark or privacy rights of either Madden or Barkley.

EchoStar’s complaint, in part, said:

Mr. Caliendo’s impressions of Mr. Madden and Mr. Barkley are intended to be, and are, obvious and humorous parodies and caricatures of some of the traits of Mr. Madden and Mr. Barkley.

Mr. Caliendo’s parodies and caricatures of Mr. Madden and Mr. Barkley do not create any likelihood of confusion, or suggest or imply that Mr. Madden or Mr. Barkley sponsor or promote Dish Network.

There’s been no word since an apparent settlement earlier this month when EchoStar filed for dismissal of its February 14 filing. It’s not known if DISH Network will continue to run the ad campaign.

Did you see the ads? Did they infringe on any trademark or privacy rights? What do you think?

Share This

Written by Jim Taylor on April 27th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on News.

• [+] Digg: Feature this article
• [+] Del.icio.us: Bookmark this article
• [+] Furl: Bookmark this article

Related articles

• DISH Network Reaches 100 HD National Channels Ahead of Schedule (7/17/2008)
• DISH Network’s DTVPal Now Available (6/30/2008)
• April Brings New DISH Network HDTV Stations (4/20/2008)
• DISH Network Purchases Radio Spectrum (3/30/2008)
• DISH Network Ad Campaign Features Comedian Frank Caliendo (2/20/2008)