The Helen Pretzel Salt Council, a five-member quasi-public trade body established by White County Ordinance 2019-42 to "promote, through reasonable means, the distinct regional salt used in Helen-tradition pretzels," voted 5-0 Monday to name the British-Albanian recording artist Dua Lipa as the Council's Global Brand Ambassador. The motion was introduced by Council member Ilse Brunnstein (proprietor, Ilse's Bretzelhütte) and seconded by Council Chair Werner Thaler (proprietor, Thaler Deli & Fine Meats). The motion carried without debate.

At 8:47 a.m. Tuesday morning, Council member Brunnstein and two subcontracted workers from Helen Vinyl & Sign unfurled, from the south face of the Helen Festhalle at 1074 Edelweiss Strasse, a 72-foot-by- 14-foot vinyl banner. The banner bears, in 14-foot white sans-serif letters on a crimson ground, the text:

"OFFICIAL PRETZEL SALT OF DUA LIPA"

Below this, in somewhat smaller letters, the banner reads: "A PARTNERSHIP OF THE HELEN PRETZEL SALT COUNCIL — EST. 2019." Below that, the Council's logo: a stylized three-sided salt crystal refracted over a small pretzel.

Ms. Lipa's likeness, screen-printed onto the lower-left of the banner, is visibly derived from a 2024 BRIT Awards press photograph. A pretzel has been compositionally added to her left hand. The pretzel appears to have been pasted in using what one Helen Vinyl & Sign technician, speaking on condition of anonymity, described as "the free version of Photoshop."

The Council's reasoning

Per the minutes of Monday's meeting, the Council's sole stated basis for the designation was "a recent commercial-industry affiliation" between Ms. Lipa and "a major European beverage firm" — an apparent reference to Nespresso's April 3 announcement that Ms. Lipa had been named Nespresso's own Global Brand Ambassador.

Council Chair Thaler, interviewed Tuesday afternoon in his cutting room at Thaler Deli & Fine Meats, explained the reasoning: "If she is doing coffee, we believed she was available for salt. Coffee and salt are both granular. Salt, we would argue, is more ancient. We thought she would see the logic."

Asked whether the Council had, at any point, attempted to contact Ms. Lipa's management to propose the arrangement, Mr. Thaler said: "That was to be Ilse's task." Ms. Brunnstein, asked the same question separately at her shop an hour later, said: "I was going to write a letter. I had not yet obtained the address."

Dua Lipa's side

Ms. Lipa's UK-based management firm, Tap Music, was reached via the general-inquiries email address listed on its website. A reply, received at 4:12 p.m. Tuesday, reads, in full:

"Thank you for your inquiry. We are not currently at liberty to discuss this."

A follow-up asking whether "this" referred to the Pretzel Salt Council's announcement was acknowledged by an automated out-of-office reply for Tap Music's communications director, who is, according to the auto- reply, "out of office until Monday, April 21, with limited email access."

Nespresso's corporate communications office, asked whether Ms. Lipa's existing Global Brand Ambassadorship with Nespresso constituted a conflict with the Helen Pretzel Salt Council's claim, declined to comment on "regional salt partnerships."

Georgia right-of-publicity

Dr. Moira Catesby, a specialist in entertainment law and adjunct professor at Emory University's School of Law, was asked Tuesday by this publication whether the Council's unannounced use of Ms. Lipa's name and likeness on the Festhalle banner raised issues under Georgia's right-of-publicity statute, O.C.G.A. § 51-12-1.

Dr. Catesby said it did.

She added, with some care: "I would call the exposure, in her case, significant. The banner uses her name, her face, and a fabricated product endorsement, on a public building, in the commercial capacity of a trade association. If Ms. Lipa, or her representatives, chose to pursue a claim, I believe the Council would be unable to defend it."

Asked whether the Council's apparent belief that Ms. Lipa "would see the logic" constituted a legal defense, Dr. Catesby said: "It does not."

As of 6:00 p.m. Tuesday evening, the banner remained on the south face of the Festhalle. The Festhalle rents its south face for commercial signage at a rate of $1,450 per week. The Council, per Mr. Thaler, has paid for two weeks.