Tom Waits has filed a lawsuit against a unit of automaker General Motors Corp. and a German advertising agency for allegedly using a soundalike in a series of European ads.
The 55-year-old singer/songwriter, whose distinct, gravelly voice has won him two Grammy Awards, filed the civil lawsuit this week with a state court in Frankfurt, listing Adam Opel AG and the advertising firm McCann Erickson as the defendants.
Andreas Schumacher, Waits’ German lawyer, said the singer was approached numerous times about doing the ads last year but declined, citing a policy of not doing commercials. He said the firm then hired a sound-alike and the ads aired earlier this year in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.
Source: billboard
