On severaloccasions in the past, I’ve railed against established artists permitting their music (or images of themselves) to be used in ads. According to Bill Wyman (thanks to AdHack for the pointer), that ship has sailed.
There is no longer even a debate, let alone a stigma. “If you did an advert, you were a sellout,” notes Billboard Executive Editor Tamara Conniff. “The Rolling Stones broke that when they allowed the use of ‘Start Me Up’ for the Windows campaign. Though there was an initial backlash, it suddenly made it okay for bands of integrity to do commercials. Now, it’s almost as if as an artist you don’t have a corporate partner [or] commercial, you’ve not really arrived.”
Mr. Wyman still doesn’t think it’s a very good idea. However, he wants to quantify sellouts, and devise “an objective formula for determining just how offensive a particular rock-based advertisement is”.
Tongue firmly in cheek, he enlists the help of a mathematician. They invent a formula for calculating what he calls the Moby Quotient. Here’s an illustrated version, with a number of examples. The Clash’s “London Calling” selling Jaguars? Bad. Bachman-Turner-Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business” selling Office Depot? Not so bad.
I know this is arecurringtheme on this site, but rest assured I don’t post here every time I see an artist exploiting their fame to promote products. I know I’m tilting at windmills, but I find it deeply distasteful and, often, an unprincipled decision by the artist. I’ll spare you the usual Neil Young citation.
I wonder if she dreamed of pimping printers back when she was in a little Anaheim ska band? Did visions of glossy paper float through her head when she slept in the back of the van? I found this quote from Ms. Stefani, from back in March, 2005:
“Y’know someone one time called me a cheerleader, negatively, and I’ve never been a cheerleader. So I was, like, ‘OK, fuck you. You want me to be a cheerleader? Well, I will be one then. And I’ll rule the whole world, just you watch me.’”
She’s ruling the world, one colour laser jet at a time. I wonder how much she makes for this campaign? And does she really need the money?
As a side note, I saw this ad on TSN’s video site. This is probably a secondary broadcast medium for the ad, but it’s interesting to think about whether the Gwen Stefani + HP Printers + TSN equation makes sense. Particularly when, strangely, they’re promoting Stefani-themed paper dolls. Bizarre.
