SANTA BARBARA, California (15 Oct, 2003) -- When Santa Barbara swim and dive fin designer Bob Evans felt he was getting a raw deal from Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine, he thought he had the perfect answer. The publication had issued a challenge offering $10,000 to anyone who could prove the magazine was biased and contained "lies, misrepresentations or other distortions." Mr. Evans took up the challenge. He felt the magazine repeatedly portrayed his product in a poor light and made factual misrepresentations without having conducted the objective research it claimed. In addition, those same reports seemed slanted in favor of rival manufacturers who were among the magazine's major advertisers. So in September 2000, Mr. Evans sent off a detailed five-page submission supporting his case and claiming the $10,000 challenge payment. The magazine denied his accusations and refused to pay. On Tuesday, three years later, the matter was addressed at a settlement conference in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, this time as a breach of contract suit filed by Mr. Evans. His attorney, Stewart Holden, said after the closed-door hearing that a settlement has been reached in principle. However, both parties have agreed that no details will be released until the settlement is finalized in about 10 days. In his submission to the court, Mr. Holden said the magazine claims to have carried out comparative tests of Mr. Evans' fins and those of his competitors but has been unable to produce any test data. He said Mr. Evans views the case as a matter of principle and believes the magazine is obliged to "unconditionally hand over the $10,000 promised in its challenge." In a responding submission, attorney Andre Bates, from Los Angeles, said Mr. Evans has alleged the appearance of bias and favoritism by the magazine but has failed to produce any supporting evidence. | | Force Fins Despite this, Mr. Bates said the magazine has twice made settlement offers to Mr. Evans. The most recent was for $5,000 (or an advertising credit of $10,000), the removal of all links to Mr. Evans' products on the Rodale Web site and the inclusion of a confidentiality clause. Before Tuesday's hearing Mr. Evans claimed the adverse publicity in the magazine -- which he said is completely groundless -- has damaged his business to the tune of between $4 million and $5 million in lost sales. However, he said the breach of contract case is not about that or even about the $10,000 at stake -- it is much more about restoring his reputation and the reputation of the revolutionary fins which he designs and manufactures. CDNN Opinion: Rodale's Scuba Diving ads for waivers scam: Your e-mail address is for sale |
