“Stealing a musician’s voice is stealing his integrity, identity and humanity,” said an attorney for Johnny Cash’s estate.
It’s only a few seconds, but the voice is unmistakable: Coca Cola produced a commercial in which a singer sounds exactly like Johnny Cash for the accompanying soundtrack. This now has consequences, the soda giant is being sued by the estate of the music legend, who passed away in 2003.
The spot first aired in August and caused little stir. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday (November 25) in Nashville. It accuses the Coca Cola Company of “stealing Johnny Cash’s voice in a national advertising campaign to enrich itself – without asking permission or paying compensation.”
“Stealing a musician’s voice is stealing his integrity, identity and humanity,” wrote Tim Warnock of Loeb & Loeb, an attorney for Cash’s estate. “The estate files this lawsuit to protect the voice of Johnny Cash and to send a message that protects the voice of all musicians whose music enriches our lives.”
The somewhat thick statement of claim also contains a reference to a judgment from 1988. Here, the singer and actress Bette Midler won a legal dispute against the automobile manufacturer Ford after it used a voice similar to her in an advertisement without her permission.
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Reference to the ELVIS Act (not a joke!)
In addition, the so-called ELVIS Act is also cited, also known as the “Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act of 2024”. The law was passed in the US state of Tennessee.
The ELVIS Act aims to protect people – especially artists, musicians and other creative people – from having their identity (name, image, voice, even things that remind them of them in some way) being commercially abused without consent by artificial intelligence (e.g. as deepfakes or voice clones).
Johnny Cash’s estate wants the advertising banned from television and the Internet and is demanding unspecified compensation.
However, the question that remains, which is not easy to answer, is whether the voice is really 100 percent reminiscent of Johnny Cash or just creates an impression. The lawyers have to decide that – and will most likely listen to some Cash records.