Greyhound’s Attempt To Get “Edgy” Backfires Worse Than One Of Its Rickety Old Buses

Yesterday a member of the band WZT Hearts discovered that his group was featured in an XLR8R ad for Greyhound–the ad was in the form of four tear-out postcards (reprinted above) that had shots from concerts by WZT Hearts, Dan Deacon, Ruins, and Team Robespierre on the front, and little blurbs about the bands, as well as the bus company’s logo, on the back. Needless to say, the artists were not pleased to find out that their likenesses were being used in this ad campaign unbeknownst to them (especially since implied endorsements like this seem to be more and more common these days), and Deacon unleashed this anti-Greyhound salvo via MySpace’s handy bulletin feature:

in the december issue of XLR8R magazine there is an ad for greyhound bus service that uses a photo of me at a show did at silent barn, a diy venue in brooklyn. no one asked me if this was ok. no one asked silent barn if it was ok to associate them with the company.

i first heard about it from jason of wzt hearts, who are also used in the ad, also without permission or even the courtesy of letting us know.

greyhound bus company is one of the worst run, bullshit companies i have ever had the misfortune to use. they are a total monopoly and take advantage of that with poor service and price hikes and route cancellation. they have bought all the other smaller companies and run them out of their office in dallas. they treat both their employees and customers like shit. they are a cancer.

since i do not drive i used to use them to get to shows (when nothing else was available). on many occasions i had to cancel shows because the bus would be late, my luggage would get lost/stolen, the over sell their buses, and fuck i fucking hate them.

it really upsets me that i am being used to promote them. if i had my way i would see all their buses transport guns to all the people they have fucked over.

like many evil companies they are trying to use subversive advertising and i will not allow myself to be a cog in their wheel of lies and deceit. these rats stink like rotten cum. fuck them with 1000 fires.

Wait, is that even anatomically … oh, never mind. Meanwhile, in a thread on board.crewcial.org, Philadelphia promoter Sean Agnew reposted an e-mail query that he got from the magazine about shooting shows at his venues, which he turned down. So why did the photographer who shot this ad go into the Silent Barn apparently unannounced, without asking the artists (or, um, crowd members? who are also in the pictures too?) for clearances first? Obviously a concert falls under the purview of a “news event,” but I’m pretty sure the sponsorship aspect behind these photos making it to print makes the legality of these implied endorsements tricky, if not something that the artists may be able to realize at least some messily acquired coin from.

Can you sue if a company uses a picture and blurb of your band in an ad… [board.crewcial.org] greyhound bus all up on baltimore’s jock [OH MY VENUS LOON]