Free Dr Pepper for All if 'Chinese Democracy' Happens in 2008

Soda Company Stunt Nudges Axl Rose, Guns N' Roses

Posted by Michael Bush on 03.26.08 @ 06:00 AM

For the past 15-plus years Axl Rose has been toying with the emotions of the 12 or so Guns N' Roses fans left in the world by hinting that he might actually release the band's next masterpiece album, Chinese Democracy. I know he once sang about needing "Patience," but 15 years man? Come on already. You'd think that in between getting all that Michael Jacksonesque plastic surgery done and picking fights with the hulking Tommy Hilfiger he'd find the time to finish this thing. But no, not our Axl.

Well Dr Pepper has had enough and it's decided to throw down the gauntlet.

Today the company is announcing that it will give a free Dr Pepper to everyone in the U.S. if Axl releases the album before the end of 2008. Now, you might think the company is taking quite the chance here. Let's face it: 300 million cans is a lot of product. And the logistics of the thing would probably be a gargantuan headache.

But if we're going to face things, let's really face reality. Never has a company made a safer giveaway challenge than this one.

That album has about as much of a chance of seeing the light of day in 2008 as Axl does in being able to express some real emotion on that taut face of his.

But for those people who really love getting free stuff and would actually like to see the company try and pull this off, they can visit www.chinesedemocracywhen.blogspot.com, which was created by Dr Pepper with the help of its PR agency, Ketchum, and leave notes of encouragement for Axl in the hopes of lighting a fire under his ass to finish the album. Something record executives haven't been able to do for the past decade-and-a-half.