the 80's: Still Dead
Back in June 2005 I was lamenting that the '80s were dead as I listened to Madness' "Our House" as a Maxwell House ad.
The trend is continuing. Blondie's "One Way or Another" provides the music for both a car ad and Swiffer. Yes, I do know that the song is actually from 1978, but I'm rounding up! And even worse - Wendy's is using the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" in their new campaign. (Morty's comment: 'ew. and eww!')
Clearly our cohort is coming into the ranks of the advertising industry, but more likely we have become the target audience that the 26 yo ad execs are pushing these products at. Does "Blister in the Sun" really conjure up a faint memory for some 45 yo mother that now sways her decide to hop in her Honda Odyssey to take the brood out for a single with cheese? All it makes me think of is the bars on south campus and hoping when you had to take a piss, the toilets weren't overflowing with puke. Ahhh....good times.
Recently I've heard muzaked versions Pat Benatar's "We Belong" and Modern English's "I'll Melt with You" for something or other.
Chances are the artists themselves don't own the music. The record company does or music publisher licenses it to the advertisers, so if the actual artist didn't write the song, they might not even be seeing a cent from any of this - which is a shame.
Obviously we're going to have a few more years of this before they start looking at '90s tunes for the next group of folks with income to target. Mark my words, soon you'll be hearing a Madonna sound-alike crooning "ooooh ooooh, something's got an odor. ooooh oooh, something's got an odor. my baby uses Secret".
Just make sure it's unscented!
stuff & nonsense
2 comments:
South Campus wouldn't be UT, Austin would it? And yeah the 80's songs bring back a lot of partying flashbacks.
South Campus OSU, Columbus. I'm not giving away too much saying that, am I? Too late. And I can't even come up with something outrageous, since it's all being done FOR REAL (as my five year-old says). Do they know that BITS is about masturbating? Do they care? DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS????
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