RE: [microsound] nissan foundsound commercial

[ndk <ndkent@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >Speaking of car commercials, did anyone catch the Mercedes commercial
> several years ago that used the Janis Joplin song?  >It's amazing that a
> harsh condemnation of consumer culture can be used to market consumer
> culture.  We live in strange,   >strange times.
> 
> Very similar to Ronald Reagan endorsing Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."
> as an example of how Americans ought to feel about their country.  You see
> what you want to see, I guess.
> 

What I read in the press re:the Mercedes-Joplin campaign was at the time
Mercedes was suffering from the alarmingly declining U.S. demographic of
young (and obviously affluent) people were neither buying or worse even
considering their brand. They knew full well people would create buzz
due to everyone telling eachother about the irony. Its sort of win-win
for them because Joplin is obviously long passed away and it makes them
seem not only daring but reminds them the company has been an attention
getter forever. And the song simply wasn't in circulation for the
younger set, so its fresh and impassioned to the clueless too. (which
reminds me of the lesser irony of the "priceless" credit card
commercials with the electronica track by Jean Jacques Perrey that was
recorded about a decade before the young credit card craving actors in
the commercial were born)

In the scheme of things cars sort of represent an image for the owner
and are often pondered over for quite some time. The agencies that picth
the adds know the importance in "investing" in the attention of the next
car buying generation and it wins with older types worried about lost
youth and prehaps the car can "recapture the feeling"

The Nissan thing seemed to send the message, we are young, hip, creative
and successful enough (by some means) to afford that house, car and home
studio. This kind of music is the new rock and roll. To older people I'm
sure they look like what they probably imagine those hip young people
are doing and by them seeming to do something very clever, making
sampled music with the car, so that car must be technically hip too. I
guess the car company only loses from the adverse reaction to those
making that kind of music, but who knows, maybe getting that car will be
a career booster.

nicholas d. kent

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