Hulk Hogan Challenges Post Foods to a Lawsuit, Cites Humiliating Defeat in Cartoon Ad
Hulk Hogan claims in a lawsuit that a character named “Hulk Boulder” in a cartoon commercial for Cocoa Pebbles is a misappropriation of his likeness.
In the commercial, a blond Hulk Boulder with a mustache takes on Flintstones characters in a wrestling match, according to stories in the Hollywood Reporter, the Tampa Tribune and the New York Times blog Arts Beat. He makes short shrift of Fred and Barney, but is no match for Bam-Bam.
According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Tampa, the commercial ends as Hulk “is shown humiliated and cracked into pieces with broken teeth, with the closing banner, ‘Little Pieces…BIG TASTE!’ “
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, says in the suit against Post Foods that he used the name Hulk Boulder earlier in his career. Hogan is marketing his own products, including the Hogan Energy drink and Hulkster Burgers, the Tampa Tribune says.
The Arts Beat blog begins its post this way: “There is a lot that Hulk Hogan is willing to do in the name of comedy,” the blog says. “He will allow himself to be bonked on the head with bowling balls or zapped with electricity, or dress up in a tutu and practice ballet moves with small children (and that’s just in the trailer for “Mr. Nanny”). He’ll even come to your place of business and put you in a headlock if you ask nicely. But what he will not allow is for an apparent cartoon version of himself to be defeated in a wrestling match by the son of a cereal-shilling caveman.”
