{"id":8742,"date":"2025-11-27T06:36:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/johnny-cash-estate-files-lawsuit-against-coca-cola-over-voice-mimic-ad\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T06:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T06:36:54","slug":"johnny-cash-estate-files-lawsuit-against-coca-cola-over-voice-mimic-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/johnny-cash-estate-files-lawsuit-against-coca-cola-over-voice-mimic-ad\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Cash Estate Files Lawsuit Against Coca-Cola Over Voice Mimic Ad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tThe estate of Johnny Cash has brought a lawsuit accusing Coca-Cola of illegally hiring a tribute singer to mimic the country legend\u2019s voice in a college football advertisement.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe federal court complaint, filed on Tuesday (Nov. 25) in Nashville, is the first high-profile case to be brought under Tennessee\u2019s recently enacted ELVIS Act. Effective last summer, the novel statute expanded the state\u2019s right of publicity to explicitly protect a person\u2019s voice from nonconsensual exploitation. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe John R. Cash Revocable Trust, which manages the estate of the singer who died in 2003, takes issue with a new song in a Coca-Cola commercial that\u2019s been airing during college football games since August. The lawsuit claims the voice behind the jingle sounds \u201cremarkably\u201d similar to Cash\u2019s signature bass-baritone \u2014 and that, in fact, it\u2019s the voice of a professional Cash tribute performer named Shawn Barker.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cStealing the voice of an artist is theft. It is theft of his integrity, identity and humanity,\u201d wrote a lawyer for the Cash estate, Tim Warnock <\/strong>of Loeb & Loeb. \u201cThe trust brings this lawsuit to protect the voice of Johnny Cash \u2014 and to send a message that protects the voice of all of the artists whose music enriches our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the lawsuit, the Cash estate regularly licenses out the legendary performer\u2019s intellectual property. For example, his songs \u201cRagged Old Flag\u201d and \u201cPersonal Jesus\u201d have both been featured in Super Bowl telecasts. But the estate says Coca-Cola \u201cnever even bothered to ask the trust for a license\u201d before using a voice soundalike in its commercial.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis case arises from Coca-Cola\u2019s pirating Johnny Cash\u2019s voice in a nationwide advertising campaign to enrich itself \u2014 without asking for permission or providing any compensation to the humble man and artist who created the goodwill from which Coca-Cola now profits,\u201d reads the complaint.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe estate is asking for a court injunction that would take the ad off screens, plus financial damages for Coca-Cola\u2019s alleged violation of Cash\u2019s rights of publicity under the ELVIS Act. Damages are also sought for supposed violations of a Tennessee consumer protection statute and a federal law against false endorsements.<\/p>\n

\n\tCoca-Cola did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday (Nov. 26). A rep for Barker, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, told Billboard <\/em>the tribute singer\u2019s team was \u201cthrilled when we were approached to have Shawn sing vocals for this commercial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShawn Barker has been performing with his Cash tribute \u2018The Man in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash\u2019 for over two decades, touring the world sharing his love of Johnny Cash\u2019s music and stories with fans both old and new,\u201d added Barker\u2019s manager, Joey Waterman<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the first major lawsuit to take advantage of Tennessee\u2019s new voice protections under the ELVIS Act, short for the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act of 2024. It\u2019s worth noting, though, that there is no allegation of artificial intelligence-powered voice mimicking in the Coca-Cola commercial, which Tennessee lawmakers were vocal about curbing when they expanded the state\u2019s right of publicity law last year.<\/p>\n

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\n\tRather, the Cash estate\u2019s lawsuit follows in the footsteps of historic litigation brought by artists over sound-alike singers mimicking their voices. Bette Midler famously sued Ford over a series of commercials featuring impersonator vocals in the 1980s, winning a precedent-setting victory that established voices as protectable rights of publicity in California.<\/p>\n

\n\tMidler\u2019s case limited these enforcement rights to the commercial advertising context \u2014 that is, advertisements that use a celebrity\u2019s likeness to make it appear they\u2019re endorsing a product. This same limitation applies to most laws in the patchwork of state-level publicity rights throughout the United States. However, the newly minted ELVIS Act is different: It expands liability so that one can sue any individual for trampling their publicity rights in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Cash estate\u2019s Coca-Cola lawsuit stays in the traditional commercial lane. But now that the ELVIS Act is in effect, it\u2019s possible we\u2019ll see more novel right of publicity lawsuits brought over soundalikes in recorded songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tRick Astley waded into this area in 2023, before the ELVIS Act was passed, by suing Yung Gravy for mimicking his voice in the rapper\u2019s breakout hit \u201cBetty (Get Money).\u201d That case, which sparked debate about the commercial limits of publicity rights, settled before a judge could rule on its merits.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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