Keeping The Lawyers Working. Lindsay Who? Lohan Sues over E*TRADE Baby Spot.

It has been asked what do you call 101 lawyers at the bottom of a lake? ...A GOOD START! You can add to that the list of

I love everyone one of those "adorable" and creatively "humorous" spots from E*TRADE featuring a talking baby, but this story is on the wide side of "maschugana" (Italian for crazy).

Celebrity lawsuits never cease to amaze me. The latest bizarro suit was filed by "pop-tart" Lindsay Lohan for $100 million (US) on Monday March 8th. What really boils the blood and makes this lawsuit so heinous is that it’s centered around one of the babies in the spot (word has it an Oakville, Ontario baby at that) who is refereed to as "that milkoholic Lindsay", and now the handlers of Lindsay Lohans and her legal team think they have claim that the spot. According to the New York Post, actress Lindsay Lohan is suing the investment site on the grounds that the man-eating, substance-abusing baby in the commercial is based on her persona that has been defamed by the media and the spot has been built around this.

The spot which debuted during the Super Bowl and was aired in heavy rotation during the Winter Olympics.

Here's where it gets crazy (if the simple idea wasn't already), Lohan and lawyer Stephanie Ovadia, are requesting that the spot be taken off the air and that every copy of the "defamatory" spot be rounded up and removed (this could significantly difficult if not impossible given today’s social media circles and web coverage).

At the focal point of the suit was made by Ovadia when explaining that, “Many celebrities are known by one name only, and E-Trade is using that knowledge to profit… They used the name Lindsay…They’re using her name as a parody of her life. Why didn’t they use the name Susan? This is a subliminal message. Everybody’s talking about it and saying it’s Lindsay Lohan.”

Ohhhhhh pleeeeeze... I had Lindsay Wagner the Bionic Women top of mind.

Ovadia also says Lohan was mistreated because E-Trade didn’t get her approval nor offer her compensation for allegedly being referred to in the ad. Now, the lawyer says her client is owed $50 million in exemplary damages, as well as $50 million in compensatory damages.

E*TRADE doesn’t typically comment on pending litigation but noted, "We felt it appropriate given the high level of interest in the E*TRADE Baby. With the E*TRADE Baby, our advertising campaign is meant to be witty and memorable, while effectively communicating the powerful investing tools and services offered by E*TRADE. We believe the claims are without merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously in this case".

Personally the big winner in all of this is eTrade. Simply, one could argue that by suing E-Trade, Lohan has called even more attention to the ad which (as of this posting) has nearly 3.7 million views on YouTube.

Good luck Ms. Lohan and Ms. Ovadia, sadly I don't see it as you do. Personally, the ad agency (Grey New York) did some research on popular baby names where Lindsay ranks in the top 10 and Susan fails to make the top 100.

Go figure!

Watch Coverage from The Young Turks:


Creative Credits - "Girlfriend"


Executive Creative Director: Noel Cottrell
Executive Creative Director: Dante Desole/Amy Rosen
Creative Director: Paul Behnen
Copywriter: Eli Terry/Randy Krallman
Art Director: Paul Behnen/Amy Ferguson

Additional eTrade "Baby" Campaign Spots:


"OUTTAKES"


"Barbershop"



"First-Class"



"Golf Buddies"

PHOTO: ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN NEW YORK MAGAZINE SPRING FASHION ISSUE 2008