Welcome to the internet marketing jungle

Axl Rose fired the rest of Guns N’ Roses and took more than a decade to finish this year’s Chinese Democracy album, but in doing so managed to come up with an innovative form of internet marketing.

Drinks brand Dr Pepper had played on the album’s constantly-delayed release by promising a free can to everyone in the USA if it came out during 2008 - which it duly was, although whether this was because Rose had an Axl to grind with the drink was not clear.

However, after the album’s launch Dr Pepper’s website crashed because of heavy traffic - bad PR for the drink, but not so for the band.

Word of mouth moves quickly online, so large amounts of people heard about the problem - leading to Guns N’ Roses writing a letter of complaint about the “fiasco”.

“My guess is that Guns N’ Roses and its lawyer’s strategy is that the more [the controversy] is out there, the more that Chinese Democracy sells,” celebrity consultant David Schwab told USA Today.

“Think about the attention that the album is getting… this keeps Chinese Democracy in the limelight.”

So even this article is advertising for the band - hopefully a can of Dr Pepper is on its way.