{"id":52757,"date":"2025-11-27T00:53:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/johnny-cash-estate-sues-coca-cola-claiming-ad-violates-elvis-act\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T00:53:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T00:53:38","slug":"johnny-cash-estate-sues-coca-cola-claiming-ad-violates-elvis-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/johnny-cash-estate-sues-coca-cola-claiming-ad-violates-elvis-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Cash Estate Sues Coca-Cola Claiming Ad Violates ELVIS Act"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tThe estate of Johnny Cash<\/a> is suing Coca-Cola, accusing the company of hiring a tribute singer to imitate the country singer\u2019s voice illegally for a college football ad, as Billboard <\/a><\/em>reports<\/a>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tThe federal complaint filed Tuesday in Nashville is the first major case to come under Tennessee\u2019s Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act (ELVIS) Act. Enacted in 2024, the ELVIS Act<\/a> expanded the state\u2019s statutory right of publicity to protect a person\u2019s voice from being exploited.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe manager of Cash\u2019s estate, the John R. Cash Revocable Trust, cited a song in a commercial, which has been airing since August during college football games. In the lawsuit, the estate claims that the voice in the ad sounds \u201cremarkably\u201d like Cash\u2019s, and that it is the voice of a performer named Shawn Barker, who is a professional Cash tribute performer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cStealing the voice of an artist is theft. It is theft of his integrity, identity and humanity,\u201d\u00a0Tim Warnock\u00a0of Loeb & Loeb, a lawyer for Cash\u2019s estate, wrote. \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\tWhile the Cash estate does license the late performer\u2019s intellectual property \u2014 such as his songs \u201cRagged Old Flag\u201d and \u201cPersonal Jesus,\u201d which were used in Super Bowl telecasts \u2014 the estate claims Coca-Cola \u201cnever even bothered to ask the trust for a license\u201d in the case of this ad where they used a voice sounding like Cash that aired during college football games.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the complaint, \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<\/p>\n

\n\tA rep for Coca-Cola did not immediately return Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tThe estate is seeking a court injunction that would remove the ad from airing alongside financial damages over alleged violations of Cash\u2019s rights under the ELVIS Act, among seeking other damages.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile this is the first major case to be brought under the ELVIS Act, the legislation was intended to protect artists against artificial intelligence deepfakes and voice clones. The Cash estate\u2019s complaint against Coca-Cola does not allege artificial intelligence was used in the commercial, as Billboard<\/em> notes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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