Drake and 21 Savage have been slapped with a lawsuit over a fake Vogue cover they posted on Instagram last week.
Advance Magazine Publishers Inc., the parent company of Vogue publisher Condé Nast, claims the rap stars' “deceptive” marketing campaign for their collaborative album Her Loss – which included posters and the distribution of copies of the doctored magazines – violated its intellectual property rights.
Both Drake and 21 Savage shared a photo of the bogus magazine cover with the caption: “Me and my brother on newsstands tomorrow!!” and thanked Vogue and its editor-in-chief Anna Wintour “for the love and support on this historic moment.”
But, lawyers for Condé Nast said in a U.S. federal court filing on Monday that Vogue and Wintour “have had no involvement in Her Loss or its promotion, and have not endorsed it in any way. Nor did Condé Nast authorize, much less support, the creation and widespread dissemination of a counterfeit issue of Vogue, or a counterfeit version of perhaps one of the most carefully curated covers in all of the publication business.”
The company claims its lawyers demanded that the rappers “cease their infringing activities and take appropriate remedial measures to curtail further public confusion” but “nothing was done.”
Condé Nast said the photo was a “flagrant infringement” of its trademark intended to capitalize on the “tremendous value that a cover feature in Vogue magazine carries.” The lawsuit noted that many media outlets were fooled by the faux Vogue.
Condé Nast is demanding an injunction barring Drake and 21 Savage from using the “counterfeit” cover and is seeking as much as $4 million U.S.
Drake, 21 Savage and Drake’s PR agency Hiltzik Strategies (which is also named in the suit) have not responded to the allegations.
The promotional campaign for Her Loss also included a fake interview with Howard Stern and a bogus performance on SNL.