Jeremy Hollister (jeremy@mte.com)
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 10:29:29 -0400 (EDT)
Ouch my fingers are singed!
While I understand the basic philos behind your distaste in using good
music in ads, I have to disagree with you on several points.
First off, there is a huge difference between uses of songs in commercials.
One use is to take a song that is heavy in "cultural significance"
(read the BK ads) which possess a "place in our culture and then
EXPLOITing that song to imbue a product with those same qualities.
(In fact the whole "Think Different" campaign from apple
is guilty of this, as much as I like Apple).
The other use (and the the one I brought up using the context of"hip") is
using good music that means something to the creator of the commercial.
It is not the "CORPORATION" who is sitting and doing the actual commercial,
it is people, some of which have a taste in music, that put the song onto
the commercial. Like the example of the VW ads, it was not an evil
corporation scouting about to find an underground movement to exploit, it
was a guy who looked through his own CD collection and picked out the music.
There is often complaint about original artist not getting "props" their work
when it gets popular, etc. By using the work, if the musician agrees,
lets them get the credit and hopefully the money for it.
THere is enough shit on television, and there is no reason to perpetuate
that, what I like about the VW ads is that they are NOT ripping off an
underground movement, they are responding to there OWN ads from twenty
years ago where the first commercial created a "Cultural" movement, as
well as being good design. They found music that was worked with their
design concept, they did not base their design around the significance of
the song itself.
on a secondary note,
I like the Gap commercials, I don't shop at the Gap. I like the Banana
Republic, again I don't shop at Banna Republic, when I can afford it I
try to support start up designers and "boutique" shops, the equivilant of
small record stores. The same for the VW, I don't like the cars.
The problem with our "culture" is that 95% of the people can't think for
themselves. Instead of "dumbing down" the public by putting crappy POP
like the backstreet Boys I'd rather try to create works that are more
interesting better aesthically and that have good music. I would also
like to represent the bands that I enjoy trying to give tham a chance to
get reimbursed, rather than having a Audio house rip them off.
Enough rebuttalRant
J
On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, Gordon Hurd wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 07, 1998 7:04 AM, Jeremy Hollister
> [SMTP:jeremy@mte.com] wrote:
>
> > Thing about TV ads is that more and more people who listen to good music
> > are creating the spots hence the increase in good music on TV, likewise
> > the Audio post houses are getting "hipper" as well, which aside from the
> > pure capitalism of it, allows for better design to get aired, which is
> > good for those people who are designers and those who appreciate it.
> >
>
> Excuse me for being a party pooper but I have to say that the use of "hip"
> music in tv advertisments is frankly a damn shame. VW, Banana Republic, the
> Gap, Burger King, Levi's--it's all the same thing. Corporations whose
> blatant voracious appetite for new consumers and demographics to plague
> with their shitty products are raping the catalogs of underground labels or
> classic anthems from times gone by. Burger King's use of "Loving You" to
> advertise Pillsbury sweet rolls for breakfast, VW using the Orb to
> captivate twentysomethings into purchasing their tacky new car. It's all
> brash commercialism that should be stopped, but in a free market there is
> no recourse. Except of course to stop patronizing the guilty conglomerates.
>
> At some point I believe you have to stop and ask yourself and others what
> cultural value comes out of using the Orb in a commercial. None. I'm not a
> mind reader but I'm sure such music was created to help uplift people or
> bring the listener into the artist's mind, not to hypnotize you into being
> the proud owner of 50 pairs of Easy Fit khakis....
>
> I know that this has been said before, but I had to put in my two cents,
> especially since someone brought up the VW ads, which to me are the worst
> example of this type of disgusting commercialism that exists in the world.
>
> End rant.
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 08 1998 - 16:34:11 MET DST