Say hello to Coca Cola’s newest pitchman, Jack White of the White Stripes, selling drinks to bovine America.
Raconteur indeed.
This brings to mind the late comedian Bill Hicks‘ rant about Jay Leno shilling Doritos when he obviously didn’t need the money. At one point in time Bill had considered Jay a great comedian and even a friend, afterall he had helped Hicks get his first TV appearance on Letterman, but the idea of Leno selling his soul in order to discuss inane topics with celebrities on late night TV was too much to bear.
- Listen to Bill Hicks’ Artistic Rollcall
- Listen to Bill Hicks’ Orange Drink
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By the way, Jack White, Brendan Benson and whoever the hell else is in the Raconteurs will be appearing at this summer’s Lollapalooza festival in Chicago… brought to you by Bud Light.
Update: 4/21/06
Screenhead points out that there are actually two versions of this ad. Here’s the second one:
Okay, so I’m with you on the needlessness of shilling from “artists”, but this is a cool commercial. And advertising is an art. Isn’t it? This ad is. If I was a musician I might have trouble using my music to sell a product I don’t believe in, but I would leap at the chance to use my music in a short film like this one. It’s interesting to try to figure out where the line is.
I’m not saying it’s not a cool ad, it is in a Target-y sorta way, and I agree, separating art and advertising is a difficult thing to do in this day and age (hell, Andy Warhol made a career out of blurring those very lines).
But there are really three questions I’m asking here:
(1) Does Jack White need the money?
(2) Can we take anything he says seriously after heads down this road?
I think we can safely answer Question #1 with absolutely not. With three Grammy Awards, record sales in the millions, and acting gigs - Jack White is not a poor man.
The answer to #2 is a bit stickier. Not because he’s doing advertising, but because you might not have had any reason to take anything Jack White said seriously before he did the ad.
Oh, yeah. Question #3.
Does Jack White need to write a jingle in order to make a cool short film? (see the answer to Question #1 above)
The interesting thing to me is that this ad is a lot like a White Stripes video. It almost seems inspired by that one for Seven Nation Army(?).
I’m curious. What company would you shill for? If you were a wealthy musician, would you lend your music or write a jingle for any product? Should we change the poll?
I think some others have written that this commercial seems like Michel Gondry (who directed the Seven Nations Army video) did it. In fact it was directed by Japanese director, Nagi Noda, who did a similar video for Japanese artist Yuki (Sentimental Journey).
I guess the answer to your what company would you shill for question is over in the right sidebar where we’ve got ads for Firefox and Google Adsense ads. What’s ironic to me is that the Google ads for this post are for “recent Jay Leno guest” Sean Paul and “recent David Letterman guest” Ben Harper.
A poll is a good idea, but I have a slight twist in mind.
Deary me, what a terrible advert… a total rip-off of michel gondry, like someone’s said, but without any of the style, energy, or originality. The song’s rubbish too… aiming for 60’s beat pop sound, but it reminds me more of a Britpop b-side.
Gondry also did the videos for “dead leaves and the dirty ground”, “the hardest button to button”, and (i think) “fell in love with a girl” along with some amazing Bjork videos, and a whole heap of others. Get the DVD of his work if you want to see short commercial films (what else are pop videos) turned into art: this is just a rubbishy ripoff.
And anyways, if advertising is indeed an “art”, then it’s the art of thinking up new ways to convince people that brown sugary water is worth shelling out cash for. Which isn’t the noblest form of expression i can think of…
So, yeah. I’m with bill on this one…
Oooo, color me intrigued.