Guns N' Roses lawyers contact Dr Pepper

Guns N' Roses' lawyers have called for Dr Pepper to extend their free drink offer.

In March the soft drinks firm offered to give every American one free beverage if Axl Rose's band managed to release their long-awaited Chinese Democracy LP.

When the disc was released earlier this week, the company used an online redemption scheme for people to make an application for their drink. The website was unable to cope with the web traffic and crashed several times on November 22 and 23.

The band's lawyers have criticised the soda maker for failing to deliver on its promise and exploiting the band's "legendary reputation", reports Billboard.

Beverly Hills-based Alan Gutman described the voucher scheme as an "unmitigated disaster which defrauded customers" and he requested the firm take out full-page apologies in various national newspapers.

Gutman also said his client wanted "appropriate payment... for the unauthorised use and abuse of their publicity and intellectual property rights".

He added: "The entire point of your campaign has been to use public interest in Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses as a lure to increase consumer awareness of Dr Pepper.

"Now is the time to clean up the mess."