"Voice of God" Use in Madden Promo Headed to Trial

If you're a football fan, you've surely heard the voice of the late John Facenda.

Facenda, a beloved Philadelphia newscaster from 1948-1973, gained national recognition for his voice-over work with NFL Films in the latter part of his career.

However, a lawsuit filed by Facenda's son alleges that the NFL allowed Electronic Arts to use the announcer's voice to promote Madden 2006 in violation of a contract Facenda signed before his death..

The case, which has been working its way through the federal court system since GamePolitics originally reported on it in 2006, now appears headed for trial. As detailed by the Associated Press on Friday:

A federal appeals court heard arguments Friday and strongly hinted that a jury should decide whether the 22-minute film was a commercial or a documentary , or perhaps, as one judge suggested, "a documercial."

 

Facenda's son is challenging the use of 13 seconds of his father's baritone voice on an NFL Network program about the making of the 2006 Madden game... The NFL, hoping to have the suit thrown out before trial, is appealing a lower-court ruling that allowed the suit to go forward.

 

The program aired on the NFL Network nine times in the days leading up to the August 2006 release of the popular Madden game. The game was not directly offered for sale during the program.

 From the complaint:

In or around August 2005, the NFL caused to be broadcast on its NFL Network a program devoted to publicizing and promoting the Madden 2006 football game... The broadcast of “The Making of Madden 2006” was coordinated with the marketing of the Madden 2006 videogame. The program was a blatant commercial for the product; in fact, the broadcast was coordinated to coincide with the release of the game...

GP: We should note that EA is not a defendant in the suit.