Publication:
Date:
Section:
Page Number(s):
Length:
Title:
Written By:

The San Diego Union-Tribune [US] - May 1, 1985
"Lawyers for Prince See Red Over Purple Pasta TV Ads"
Written By - AP

Prince, the pasta and spaghetti sauce company, says advertisements featuring its product "inconcert" were intended to be amusing, but the rock star by the same name is not laughing.

Lawyers for the 26-year-old star of the movie "Purple Rain" have penned an angry letter to the Lowell, Mass., company, demanding that it stop using his name to sell spaghetti, said Howard Bloom, the singer's publicist.

The television commercial begins with flashing purple lights and thousands of screaming fans. "Ladies and gentlemen. Inconcert, Prince," declares the announcer. And then the camera pans to a package of Prince spaghetti.

"The normal thing is, if you want to use someone's image, you request permission or you pay a lot of money," Bloom said in a telephone interview from New York.

The author of the commercial, veteran California adman Stan Freberg, said yesterday that he was surprised by the rock star's reaction.

"It was all done in good fun," he said. "After all, Prince spaghetti has had its name since 1912.