I have gotten used to, although have not become comfortable with, the use of the songs of my youth being used in the marketing of products and services on television. A lot of people do it these days and I understand why and I hate it.
But this. This is just enough to push me over the edge- which is admittedly, a very short journey at the moment.
I just saw a commercial for a disposable diaper (and yes, there are other types of diapers but that's another rant) and the music playing as the cute little toddler danced and giggled was, and I hate to even say this...All You Need Is Love.
This may not be the end of my world as I know it, but it's definitely one of the end signs.
For those of you who don't understand my rage here, let me just tell you that All You Need Is Love is a song written by John Lennon and performed by the Beatles on the very first ever live global television link in 1967. You can watch the video right here on youtube.
All You Need Is Love. That was the very simple message that John Lennon was trying to get across to the world. He was not saying that all you need is paper, plastic and chemicals that last forever to keep baby poop and pee off your furniture.
I am so angry. How DARE they use that song to catch our ears and get us to buy bags of these damn things that are going to end up crowding us off the planet? It may be legal and I don't even care who sold them the rights. Michael Jackson? Paul McCartney? Yoko Ono?
It's immoral.
Yeah, yeah. I know there's a lot more going on in the world that deserves my rage far more than this commercial should. I should get over my old damn hippie self and let go of the idea that love had anything to do with it. That four guys from Liverpool singing music could ever change the world. That the world, in fact, can be changed.
I still believe the world can be changed. But I'm quickly losing faith that it can be changed in a good way.
Toast. That's how I feel about the human race at this moment. If we can take a song that was written to send a message to the world that love is all you need and turn it into a marketing tool to sell disposible diapers, we're just toast.
I've gone on a similar rant upon hearing political punk used to market cell phones.
ReplyDeleteCell phones are better than disposable diapers somehow. I'm sorry, maybe not, but still...
ReplyDeleteThey figure we're all suckers. Let's be sure we're NOT!!! =0
ReplyDeleteBut you know, I love going to Target and they use Beatles' songs all the time in their advertising. Even though it's really well-produced and very clever, I still resent it. And yet...I go.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial for diapers that I saw today was just absolutely incredibly BAD. It was such an insult.
Capitalism has a basic tenet that everything is for sale. Everything has a price, and everybody is a customer. Unfortunately it is up to the individual to see value beyond the corporeal and clams variety. The choice to value someting as intangible as a song that promotes world peace and brotherhood by arguably the most popular musical group in history would seem an easy choice. To find a use that promotes the same ideals, even if it were to make money seems reasonable. To use it to promote baby butt plugs seems obscene.
ReplyDeleteClearly, we have reached a point where obscene capitalism is de rigeur. I believe it has become the theme of America today. Capitalism has enabled rampant greed on a global scale. It is okay to do anything for money because it is okay to do anything which will elevate you over everyone else in material wealth. In the process, all of our norms in the areas of politics, business, professional sports, corporate climates, personal integrity and professional growth have elevated monetary gain tho the only measure of success. It makes me want to puke. It makes me want to poop in a diaper. On national TV. Alas, there would be no money in this, so i am sure I could not get coverage.
Do the right thing. Spin up your copy of "All You Need is Love" on your iPod and play it really loud all week end. Then play all of your Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Litle Feat, Jeferson Airplane (if you have or play Jefferson Starship, stop and go to the mall), James Brown, The Temptations, Rolling Stones, The Band, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BB King and Bob Dylan. When you are done, play Dylan's stuff again. Then go and get drunk and burn some diapers at abonfire with friends. As the smoke spirals up into the night sky, have everyone perform an indian diaper dance to wash the bad spirits off the love you take, which is, of course, equal to the love you make.
Ah- B.Boy. I'd know that prose anywhere.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the blogosphere.
I sense the planets shifting.
Thank-you for your words.
And now for something completely different...imagine that all you need is love, because on the long and winding road, you can't buy me love unless it's been a hard day's night. But if you take Penny Lane and hear the sounds of Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it will be like a day in the life of the nowhere man. For sweet Loretta Martin and Mr. Kite will come together to witness and exclaim "here comes the sun" so the blue meanies cannot hold your hand. So don't let it be, rail against diaper mongols everywhere. We can work it out andearn a ticket to ride. Never let the bastards get you down.
ReplyDeleteI hate it too. Luckily, much of the music of my youth is rather caustic and wouldn't translate well to commercial use.
ReplyDeleteAll good advice B. Boy! But I ain't listening to any Led Zeppelin and ditto for the Pink Floyd, I don't care what you say.
ReplyDeleteJon- you just wait. They'll figure out how to do it. They will.
It's horrible isn't it! Drives me mad as well. How do they sleep at night? or look themselves in the mirror? and I'm mainly directing my disgust to whoever sold the rights in the first place! How dare they. the fact that their are massive amounts of greedy adults out there just scheming to make another buck is so horrible enough.... yes, toast is a good description...
ReplyDeleteLove the above rant though - I'm on with b-boy. gives me hope, really it does :)
Doesn't Michael Jackson own the rights to the Beatles songs and isn't he broke? Or wasn't he???
ReplyDeleteOh! And when I first heard that commercial I thought of Ewan McGregor singing in Moulin Rouge. I know, I know. But still!
ReplyDeleteIt's a freaky commercial in many ways.
http://ask.yahoo.com/20031210.html
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp
But really-like I said, I don't care. And like B. Boy said- that commercial is obscene.
Jon - you'd think that, but Dockers wanted to use Holiday in Cambodia in a commercial. I mean, doesn't this say "flat front khakis" to you?
ReplyDeleteWell you'll work harder
With a gun in your back
For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers
Till you starve
Then your head is skewered on a stake
I'm telling you, there is no end to this bullshit.
ReplyDeleteYep - marketing is everywhere. I first noticed it at the Olympics a few years back - all the athletes were wearing stick on tattoos for different sponsoring companies...how ridiculous - everything is an advertisement these days...
ReplyDelete