Lingerie company launches ad campaign featuring Princess Diana lookalike on anniversary of Diana’s death

On the anniversary of the death of the People’s Princess, lingerie company Jealousy International has launched an ad campaign featuring a Diana, Princess of Wales look alike.  No doubt the campaign is a calculated move to exploit the Princess’ international fame, recognizability, and goodwill.  But to launch it on the thirteenth anniversary of her funeral?  That might just take a special kind of infringer. 

In the CNN story covering this infringement, Nadia Bilchik incorrectly states that there is nothing anyone can do about this kind of appropriation when it occurs posthumously.  She uses Michael Jackson and James Dean as further examples of dead figures who have no rights or basis to object to this kind of commercial infringement.  As any reader of this website knows, the rights of a deceased personality (such as those named) are generally going to be enforceable against commercial exploitation and appropriation.  In fact, this lingerie company may have outwitted itself in the event that a lawsuit can be constructed, perhaps on an international basis, against Jealousy Int’l.

Here is a link to the CNN story:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/09/05/bilchik.princess.di.lingerie.cnn?hpt=T2