A New Kind of Cola War

Once upon a time, Dr. Pepper promised they'd give away a ton of their crappy soft drinks if Guns N' Roses released Chinese Democracy in 2008. Seeing as the album hadn't been released for the past 17 years, Dr. Pepper wasn't too worried. So when Chinese Democracy came out in November, it was time to make good on that promise.

Dr. Pepper did, they weren't completely stupid. They put up a coupon for a free drink on their web site, only the catch was you had to print it within 24 hours to get your complimentary goods.

Guns N' Roses apparently felt they weren't living up to their end of the bargain. So naturally, they took it to the courts.

Here's where it gets really ridiculous, though: CNN.com wrote an article about the whole affair, and the language is truly criminal. The following sentence is without a doubt the worst offender:

"That's when GN'R became GN'RN'L. Soriano fired off a letter to Dr P. No one is LOL."

I can't put into words how frightening it is that sentences like that get published by "reputable" news outlets. And people claim bloggers aren't journalists. That's just ridiculous.

This whole situation is full of fail. Fail for Dr. Pepper's coupon mess. Fail for Guns N' Roses taking it to the courts. And epic fail for CNN, who loses more credibility with every passing moment.