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Weezer have filed a lawsuit against beer company Miller and their advertising agency Young & Rubicam following an advertising campaign for the cold fizzy boozey stuff that used the Weezer name in a "grossly misleading and deceptive" manner.
The ads in question date back to 2004, but the suit was only filed at the end of last month; another band, Audioslave, have previously filed a similar suit against Miller and their associates. The offending campaign of posters used pictures of concert tickets (one of which was for a Weezer show) with the tagline, "Rock Without the Souvenir. That's Like Beer Without Taste".
Weezer - whose Rivers Cuomo is listed as the owner of their name/brand - neither consented to the use of their name for such purposes, and neither were they happy with being associated with a number of other acts mentioned on the posters, such as Devo, Velvet Revolver, Incubus, Bon Jovi and the aforementioned Audioslave. Weezer (presumably only Cuomo) claim that they "do not wish to be associated in any advertisement" with these bands.
Cuomo is asking for punitive damages amounting to three times whatever Millers' profits from the poster campaign were, as well as "an injunction against any further use of the band's image".
