50 Cent x Taco Bell. As reported yesterday, after a year of court deliberations and dealings, 50 Cent and Taco Bell finally agreed on paying the artist an undisclosed settlement for using his name and likeness and for making him the “star of a nationwide campaign” without his permission. For Taco Bell, what started as a fun publicity gimmick back in June 2008 quickly  turned sour as Taco Bell execs never realized how serious 50’s legal team would take the stunt.

I’m pretty sure that every lawyer in the office at Taco Bell and the PR reps responsible for the idea were well aware of 50 Cent’s marketing power…what they failed to notice were how protective 50’s legal team was of this branding power. 50 Cent is no fool. Yes he made millions from Get Rich or Die Tryin’ but he had and continues to substantiate his income through marketing and branding his image and the 50 Cent name.

If Taco Bell dared use his name in public for a campaign…50 wanted to be paid for it as his name was now tied to the fast food joint.


So when the President of Taco Bell publicly offered 50 Cent $10,000 to change his name to 79 Cent, 89 Cent or 99 Cent for one day, the 50 Cent “branding police” (aka his legal team) took swift action and sued. At first, many observers were shocked that 50 would sue for a fun good-hearted gimmick but history shows that 50’s lawyers were always quick to throw down in court in regards to protecting the 50 Cent brand. It didn’t matter how big or small, 50’s image and branding power was the utmost priority and had to be held at all costs. Taco Bell learned the hard way.

In my eyes, yes 50’s legal team can be hardcore, but they did the right thing. Any artist’s name is their brand, their identity just like Coca-Cola, Toyota, Nike, etc. and should be protected in the same manner. Taco Bell knew what they were doing by publicly announcing their challenge to 50 without his permission. They knew the press would jump on it right away, people would talk about it, 50 would reject it but in the end…free publicity. Now they learned their lesson and ended up having to pay for it anyways. Where does that leave 50 Cent in all this? Richer. And probably with a life time supply of free Taco Bell.

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