Record Contracts

Words: 523
Pages: 3

Whether Cheryl Townsend (“Townsend”) television commercial constituted an enforceable offer when the television announcer stated, “Come ten times, and you’ll have a record contract!” Under New York law an advertisement can only be an offer, if the advertisement should leave nothing to negotiation, but the advertisement is clear, definite, and explicit. Moreover, an advertisement that is clearly a joke will not give rise to an offer. The question remains whether a reasonable person would believe the advertisement to be a serious offer. Townsend’s television commercial, which stated, “Come ten times, and you’ll have a record contract! It worked for me”, was clearly meant to be a joke and a reasonable person would find it that way. A reasonable person would have known that the television commercial for a small town nail salon would use a faux Lady Gaga instead of a real recording artist. The faux Lady Gaga, as an …show more content…
It worked for me!” would be considered clear, definite, and explicit, and leaves nothing open for negotiation and gives rise to a definite offer. However, as shown in the case Leonard v. Pepsico, where an offer was made if a customer had 10,000,000 points they would receive a Jet. The court found that no reasonable person would establish the offering of a jet as a real offer. They showed that a jet worth clearly millions of dollars does not correlate with winning 10,000,000 Pepsi points. The offer in Pepsico is found by a reasonable person to be a joke. Similarly, in this case a reasonable person would not have believed that by having glamorous nails Townsend’s nail salon would let a person obtain a recording contract. A recording contract is given with talent not by nails. The case identifies with the Pepsico case by showing that such an outrageous offer would let a reasonable person not to believe this offer to be