Skip to main content

Bridgestone: ‘Kevin Butler’ wasn’t in our commercial

Kevin Butler
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Yesterday we brought you word that Sony has filed suit against both actor Jerry Lambert and the Bridgestone tire company claiming that the two entities had diluted its trademark. Lambert is most famous for appearing in over 30 PlayStation commercials as fictional Sony executive Kevin Butler (and he’s even slated to appear in the upcoming LittleBigPlanet Karting), and when he popped up in an ad spot for Bridgestone playing a Nintendo Wii, you can imagine that Sony wasn’t too happy with the situation. However, Bridgestone has now fired back, claiming that their commercial, though it featured Jerry Lambert, did not feature the “Kevin Butler” character.

“Mr. Lambert is one of the actors who appeared in the commercial as a Bridgestone engineer,” the company claims. “Bridgestone denies that ‘Kevin Butler’ appears in the Bridgestone commercial discussed herein and thus denies that he speaks or does anything whatsoever in the commercial.”

Recommended Videos

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bridgestone “intends to fight the lawsuit by showing that Sony has failed to register any mark on “Kevin Butler,” that the character has not acquired secondary meaning and that there is no likelihood of confusion among consumers.”

Obviously this is a mess fit for a judge to clean up, but we can legitimately see both sides of the argument on this one. On the one hand, Lambert has been doing Sony ads for so many years that there is likely a large swath of the game-buying public who doesn’t even realize that he’s a paid actor. For all they know, his name is Kevin Butler and he’s just a wacky American executive who enjoys being in his company’s commercials. In the minds of these people, Butler/Lambert is inherently associated with the PlayStation brand, and his appearing in a Bridgestone commercial in which he plays a Nintendo Wii could hypothetically confuse some viewers.

On the other, Jerry Lambert is an actor. That’s his job. He earns a living by portraying different people, and “Kevin Butler” is no more his true persona than Batman was Adam West’s. It only stands to reason that Lambert would be open to working in ad spots for companies other than Sony if the price is right, and why should his career be needlessly handicapped just because one of his characters became relatively famous?

On a third hand however, we have to assume that Lambert knew that playing a Wii in a nationally-broadcast Bridgestone commercial would upset his bosses at Sony. Failing that, we’re sure Bridgestone’s no doubt well-paid legal team could have pointed out the conflict of interest here (assuming anyone bothered to ask them).

We’re keenly interested to see how the court system rules in this case, as it could very likely set a precedent for future video game advertisements. We’ll have more information for you as it develops.

Earnest Cavalli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…
Metal Slug Tactics is an arcade reimagining worth playing on Game Pass
Key art for Metal Slug Tactics.

I was not expecting the Metal Slug franchise to transition to the strategy game genre as well as it did.

SNK’s classic action-platformer arcade series is a high-energy, bombastic shoot 'em up perfect for quick hits of destructive gaming goodness. Strategy games are inherently much slower-paced than Metal Slug typically was, so I wasn’t sure if Leikir Studio and Dotemu could effectively make the genre jump with this franchise. I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Read more
Stardew Valley is testing an exciting, experimental new multiplayer feature
Stardew Valley Multiplayer Fishing

The mobile versions of Stardew Valley are testing out an experimental new multiplayer feature.

First released in 2016, Stardew Valley is one of the most popular farming and life sims. Developer ConcernedApe has continuously updated the game since its launch, bringing it to new platforms like iOS and Android and adding important features. Multiplayer is one such feature that was added, although it wasn't available in the iOS or Android versions of the game until update 1.6. Now, players who know where to look can test Stardew Valley's experimental mobile multiplayer features.

Read more
How to play Stardew Valley multiplayer on mobile
Three Stardew Valley players visiting the Night Market.

Farming with friends in Stardew Valley is one of most relaxing ways to spend your day. While the game itself doesn't have cross-platform support, you can at least still play multiplayer with friends on the same platform. Well, any platform except for mobile. Before the 1.6 update, anyone playing the mobile version only had their villagers to keep them company, but now there's a way to invite your real friends to the farm. Using a hidden cheat code, you can now access an experimental mobile version of Stardew Valley. Here's how to test it out.

Read more