Pele has sued Samsung in federal court in Chicago, claiming the company "used a look-alike in a full-page ad" for HDTVs that appeared last year in the N.Y. Times, according to Andy Grimm of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Pele has hired attorney Fred Sperling, who is from the "same Chicago firm that represented" Basketball HOFer Michael Jordan in a similar lawsuit in '15. The ad at the center of Pele's lawsuit "shows part of the smiling face of an older, black man 'who very closely resembles Pele' beside an image of a Samsung television screen." A soccer player can be seen on the TV screen "making a modified bicycle or scissors-kick, perfected and famously used by Pele." The lawsuit notes that "two years before the ad featuring the purported look-alike Pele was published, Samsung had engaged in negotiations" to sign him to an endorsement deal. However, the company "pulled out 'at the last minute.'" While Pele is nearly 40 years removed from his last pro game, he still "raked in" $25M from endorsements in '14 (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3/29). The AP reported the lawsuit, which is seeking $30M in damages, claims the ad "will confuse consumers and hurt the value" of Pele's endorsement rights. Jordan won an $8.9M "jury verdict against the former supermarket chain Dominick's" after suing that the store "improperly used his identity in a print ad" (AP, 3/29). The FINANCIAL TIMES' Song Jung-a notes it is "unclear how much Pele could receive in damages as Samsung's advert was less explicit than Dominick's," which used Jordan's "full name and jersey number" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 3/30).
