Many stars associate their name and image with a brand. As Eva Longoria and Kate Winslet launch the famous “Because I’m worth it” by sweeping the lens of their shiny hair for L’Oreal, Leonardo DiCaprio, known for his commitments to ecology, agreed to promote the electric Fiat 500 and with the years, George Clooney and his “What else?” has become almost inseparable from Nespresso coffee.
However, this practice is not used only by the big Hollywood stars. The personalities of the small screen regularly collaborate with a brand or a product. This is particularly the case of Philippe Etchebest, starred chef of La Maison Nouvelle and Meilleur Ouvrier de France known for his participation in Top Chef, Kitchen nightmare or Top Chef objective. From Lidl to Danette via Kronenbourg or Parc Astérix, the chef has become the face of several brands in the space of a few years. Unfortunately, his experiments didn’t all go well. As revealed by journalists from Capital, the contract of 129,000 euros associating Philippe Etchebest and Akitania caviar since 2016 would not have, contrary to the expected effect, really done the business of the MOF. However, “thehe chef didn’t have much to do: pose for a photo with the product, create four recipes using caviarparticipate in a few events and let Akitania put her photo on the packaging and on the wind places“, can we read in the French media.
M6, which handled the collaboration between the chef and Akitania, criticizes the latter for not having renewed and for having “wrongfully broken“their contract just one year after it was signed while”Philippe Etchebest affirms that, during a lunch, the boss of Akitania “offered a sum of money to contract directly with him”bypassing M6.“A version which does not correspond to that put forward by Akitania who states that the contract signed was for a period of one year and was simply not renewed. The Six therefore took legal action claiming from Akitania”174,000 euros, in compensation for faults committed and loss of earnings.
This Monday, the Saintes court delivered its verdict on the case and it is obviously not in favor of the star of Top Chef. It is ultimately M6 which is ordered to pay 8,000 euros in procedural costs to Akitania. “For appellate judges, “it has not been demonstrated by M6 the existence of an offer actually accepted by Akitania, and therefore of a contract consensually subscribed, without there being any need to consider the actual absence of signature of a written contract . In the absence of agreement on the essential conditions of the planned contract, the termination of the negotiations cannot be qualified as faulty, and M6 cannot therefore claim compensation for the negotiations”, can we read in Capital.