SF Man Awarded $15.6 Million For Being Unknowing Coffee Label Model

A man whose image was used for years on Taster's Choice coffee labels has won a big jury award, and now he's speaking out.

At a news conference in San Francisco Tuesday, Russell Christoff says he first spied his face on a Taster's Choice jar in 2002 when he went looking for Bloody Mary mix at a Rite Aid store. There, staring into a cup of warm joe, was the former model and now kindergarten teacher himself.


A Los Angeles jury awarded Christoff more than 15 million dollars for using his likeness without his permission.

Glendale-based Nestle says it will appeal. Christoff's lawyer says his client's likeness has been used over the years on eight different Taster's Choice products in 18 different countries. Why did it take Christoff so many years to spot his image on the coffee jar? He's says he uses whole beans for coffee, not the freeze-dried stuff.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/4153666/detail.html

Russell Christoff

Photo of coffee jar that bears his pic

Christoff is now in his second year as a kindergarten teacher in the Bay Area community of Antioch. With the case likely tied up in a protracted appeal, he said he doesn't plan to give up his day job anytime soon.

"I'm still just as poor as I was before," he said.

*snip*

Nestle can afford it, but the award seems very "steep" to me.

What's the story behind how Taster's Choice got his pic in the first place?

nanandjim said:

What's the story behind how Taster's Choice got his pic in the first place?

Click to expand...

after reading a few news stories in Yahoo... it looks like in 1986 he actually "posed" for a 2 hour shoot for Nestle but after several months, he thought it was a bust until he saw his face in ??2002 or whenever it was that he made the discovery.

At first, I thought it was just a "likeness" to this guy but it seems now that it actually was his photo used from that 1986 photo shoot. Well, good for him, he should have been paid.

The sad thing is that he only made $200 for the photo shoot, and if they had obtained his permission, he would have only made $1,000. But his image has been used world-wide for years... I think it's just compensation, Nestle can afford it. I just can't believe it took him almost 20 years to discover it, I know he doesn't drink instant coffee, but he does shop, even in the coffee isles.

I am going to start looking at labels more carefully ~ maybe my pic is on a tube of vagisil or something :doh: