50 Cent has hit out at US fast food chain Taco Bell after they seemingly tried to blackmail him into taking part in a cheap publicity stunt by offering to give ten grand to charity if he did so.
The fast food company wanted the rapper to change his name for a day to 79, 89 or 99 Cent to coincide with a value meal promotion which is making food available at those prices. They also wanted him to go to one of their stores and order some food using his temporary name. Fiddy, rightly probably, aint impressed with the proposal, or, more so, the fact it was leaked into the press before his agent had been contacted. He says he's handing the matter to his lawyers - though on what grounds exactly I'm not sure, given the stunt was cheeky but not, as far as I can see, illegal.
Anyway, a spokesman for Fiddy told okmagazine.com that the offer was "a sleazy and ill-conceived publicity stunt by Taco Bell's president, Greg Creed, whose disingenuous offer was leaked to the press before it was even presented to 50 Cent's agent yesterday", while the rapper himself said: "When my legal team is finished with them, Taco Bell is going to have a new corporate slogan: 'We messed with the bull and got the horns!'"
Surely it would have been easier for Taco Bell to just make something available for fifty cents?