Appropriation Of Personality

For some time courts have struggled to find a way to address cases where one person's personality has been used without permission by another for his own purposes. In the 1930s English case of Tolley v Fry & Sons Ltd a candy company had used a drawing of a well-known amateur golfer in an advertisement. The drawing was accompanied by verse comparing the excellence of Mr. Tolley's swing to the excellence of the defendant's candy. Because Mr. Tolley was an amateur, the implication that he endorsed the defendant's product was held to be defamatory (because the ad untruthfully suggested he was not an amateur, but was a professional). The courts all recognized that the solution was anomalous, for had Mr. Tolley been a professional golfer, or a banker the implication that he had endorsed the defendant's product for money would not have been defamatory.