Clint Eastwood sues people who thought "Try Clint Eastwood's CBD!" was somehow good marketing
Lesson to all the pot sellers—and also, now that we think about it, members of The Gorillaz—out there on the internet tonight: Never try to make Clint Eastwood seem cool. This is per The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that Eastwood has just launched a set of lawsuits against multiple companies accused of using his name to help peddle CBD, including placing fake interviews on the internet in which he supposedly endorsed the ever-trendy psychoactive compound.
And while we’re having a bit of fun with the actor-director who put the “I can shoot you, because my gun still has a bullet in it” in can-tankerous, he’s not the only famous person who’s been targeted by these schemes. Sandra Bullock and Ellen DeGeneres have both also been used for these fake interviews, apparently although Eastwood has managed go a step further by acquiring the names of some of the companies in question—including firms like Sera Labs, Greendios and, most frustratingly, “For Our Vets.” (Meanwhile, we find ourselves fascinated by whatever illicit marketing meeting produced those three famous people as the best choices for shilling CBD to people; does every American, in some way, exist on the Clint-Sandy-Ellen axis?)
According to one of the complaints filed today, Eastwood’s name was used in fictitious pro-CBD interviews with headlines like “Big Pharma In Outrage Over Clint Eastwood’s CBD: [Name of CBD Product] – He Fires Back With This!’”—even though the only thing Clint Eastwood would actually fire back with was a formally composed, too-rigid film about American heroism (or possibly one of his classic “empty chair rants”). Eastwood is also suing a number of companies that appear to have really tried to make it look like Clint Eastwood wanted to sell you his CBD, including using hidden metatags in their sites so that Google would bring them up when people searched for “Clint Eastwood,” as one does. (And no, we weren’t expecting to use “Google metatags” and “Clint Eastwood” in the same sentence today, either.) Eastwood is seeking damages on multiple charges with the suits, including trademark infringement and false endorsement.