Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesIf all publicity really was good publicity, then Gatorade probably wouldn't have minded so much about the unsolicited—and, as it turns out, totally illegal—ad campaign a Colorado pop artist launched this week.
But that axiom pretty much bit the dust yesterday, when bottle bootlegger Jason Kay was slapped with a felony charge and two misdemeanor counts after tampering with the labels on the sports beverage by affixing custom-made stickers featuring Tiger Woods and the word "unfaithful."
The 38-year-old Kay, who apparently fessed up to the FDA investigators just as quickly as he did to the local news crews, could get five years in prison for his backfired experiment in pop art.
Not that he went down without a fight…
According to the police affidavit, obtained by the Smoking Gun, Kay exchanged emails with a rep for PepsiCo, Gatorade's corporate overlord, on Sunday, asking to work out a closed-doors deal with the drink giant in which they would give him a per diem and pay his travel expenses to cities around the country to facilitate further label hijacking, all while publicly denying any connection to the viral vandal.
As for what would be in it for Gatorade? "Positive press," of course.
In his email to the company, Kay said the project's continuation would be "good for Gatorade and good for art."
But not, it turns out, good for his personal freedom, as the company didn't exactly bite on his offer.
Instead, he now faces charges of introducing adulterated or misbranded food into interstate commerce, mutilating or destructing a food label, and tainting a consumer product with the intention of causing serious injury to a business.
He faces five years in federal prison if he's convicted of the offense. Guess you don't have to be a tiger to sport stripes.
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Remember the good old drama-free days? We don't either. But we can pretend together, thanks to our Tiger Woods: The Early Years gallery.