. . . and they were singin’ ‘buy, buy an SUV’
By Jake Dudas

When you work in advertising long enough, you see just about everything . . . or more accurately, everything over again. New ideas are few and far between.

Take a look at any billboard-laden street and you’ll see the same tired notions redressed a hundred different ways from last Sunday.

Recently, there’s been a disturbing trend in advertising; that being the growing use of musicians. Big ones. Ones that changed the course of history. Ones that defined generations. Ones that immortalized what it meant to be free. Ones that gave us solace, hope and an escape from the overbearing commercial machine in which we all live.

Granted, celebrity endorsements are nothing new. However, they’ve usually been relegated to the ‘where are they now?’ file. Today, it’s a different story. Many legitimate, genuine, brilliant, and financially successful musicians are selling out.

This is nothing short of a tragedy; in more ways than we have yet to fathom. In looking back, I’d say we entered The Twilight Zone with Microsoft’s purchase of ‘Start me up’ for $13 million (which, by the way, was an arbitrary joke on the part of Mick and Keith who figured no one would pay such a ludicrous amount for a 30-second sound bite).

Since then, we have seen many celebrated talents cross the proverbial, yet subtle line from star to sleazy salesperson. My first personal killer was Lenny Kravitz, the god-fearing, modern soul-freedom-icon who made it big with ‘Let love rule.’ I was paralyzed when he sold out to Nissan, adding the refrain: "the Pathfinder rules."

It’s now grown to epic proportions: The Who (‘You might get fooled again,’ this time into a gas-guzzling SUV); Sting (destroying the Amazon he helped save in the new Jaguar he’s toting); Sheryl Crow (‘You’re an original’. . . providing you drive a Jeep); Sid Viscous; Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson (Nashville ‘outlaws’ now uniformly clad in white Gap T-shirts); B.B. King (fries with that Whopper?); The Beach Boys (‘Surfin’ G.A.P.’); and Led Zeppelin (‘Been a long time since I drove a Cadillac’).

The list unfortunately goes on. I won’t even waste time with the new breed (you know who they are), who have ads for Pepsi and Chrysler shot before their videos hit MTV. Now, make no mistake, these artists know — unequivocally — that rock ‘n’ roll is not about car ads.

With so much money at stake, however, the rules, and morals, appear to be changing; leaving us with the logical question: why so much money? Simply put, advertisers have run into the fundamental reality of their craft.

Advertising, despite everything it espouses to be, is not cool. It never has been. It never will be. It is what it is. Not to say that it can’t be clever, entertaining or interesting, but advertising will never define cool. Let’s call a spade a spade. A slick Absolut ad is no different than a Hoover salesman. He’s just wearing a nicer suit. Hence we have the logical desire to capture the essence of cool: The musician. The renegade. The reckless abandon that can only be found in art that is free from commerce.

Unfortunately, advertisers are being quite successful with its capture; at a great financial cost, and an even greater moral and spiritual one. There is no debate that corporations today possess virtual dictatorial power. Enough power, as would appear, to coerce brilliant musicians into making an utter mockery of themselves; their painstaking pursuit of integrity; and their struggle to succeed against insurmountable odds. Evidently, success and artistic integrity fail to suffice — taking a back seat to blatant hypocrisy and pure greed. The true kicker, is that as everyone jumps on the bandwagon, this subtle advertising trick will wear itself out. Celebrity endorsements will become the norm. The high prices will be passed on to you, the consumer; and an art form that once represented freedom, will be reduced to yet another sales tool.

As appears to be the case, much of our most treasured art is becoming nothing more than a continuous lifestyle advertisement. Advertising is ‘uncooling’ that which used to be cool, leaving a quintessential expression of freedom hanging out to dry; along with a precious, dare I say essential, mental sanctuary.

Robby Krieger of The Doors captured this notion quite poignantly. In the face of over $4.5 million in recent advertising offers, he had this to say: "When I heard from one fan that our songs saved him from committing suicide, I realized that’s it — we can’t sell off these songs."

Unfortunately, such gallantry is not the norm, and it’s frightening to chart our collective shift in attitudes towards music. Consider Cameron Crowe’s quote from Led Zeppelin’s 1990 box set: ". . . they went out on top . . . with complete integrity. There would be no downward slide, no selling of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ to a detergent company." John Bonham must be rolling over in his grave.

Thanks to advertisers, a mainstream art form that once inspired change, vision and united us as a society, may one day truly be dead. The worst part, is that most people seem quite content in burying themselves right along with it.

Jake Dudas is an award-winning advertising copywriter and creative director. He has also worked as an audio engineer on platinum Canadian albums. He has never used a song in an ad.