Just because they could, didn't mean they should...

[Chas]

The thread for calling into question the crass appropriation and exploitation of our collective cultural heritage.

The two most glaring examples to me are:

The "Dust Devil" ad with Fred Astaire dancing around with a cgi dust devil.

Kenny G dubbing over Louis Armstrong. I cannot say more without lapsing into a stream of profanities. I heartily agree with Pat Metheny - it was a case of musical necrophilia.

 

[dhermann1]

It started with the Al Jolson ad for perfume, using "Tonight About a Quarter to Nine", didn't it? And wasn't there a Louis Armstrong one that used "A Kiss to Build a Dream On"?
Agreed, beyond tacky.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Charlie Chaplin as an avatar for Xerox photocopiers in the '80s was kind of dopey -- but then, Chaplin himself enjoyed his own imitators, so he probably would have approved.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Coincidentally, as I was clicking on this thread, I simultaneously found myself being so irritated by an Iceland advert with a hijacking of a T-Rex song I was hitting the mute button accompanied by a juicy swear word...

 

[Chas]

There is/was a L.A. Kustom car club - "The Goodfellas". The agreed to allow the Backstreet Boys to film a video with them with the Boys dancing on top of the cars....A Backstreet Boy, jumping up and down on top of a '49 Merc. Freakin' sacrilege. I know a Rockabilly guy who has seen the video; he lapses into enraged silence whenever it (the video) is mentioned. The Goodfellas became the laughing stock of the LA car scene for a long time afterwards. Maybe they still are.

 

[Widebrim]

Not sure if this qualifies (kind of think it does, though), but Natalie Cole recording "duets" with her long-gone father, Nat. I cringe every time I hear one. How long is she going to ride on his coattails?

 

[Marla]

A sneaker with a design adopted from Piet Mondrian's 1921 painting Composition With Red, Yellow, and Blue.

...because Art is infinitely more appealing on a shoe. :eusa_doh:

 

[Edward]

Argos (I think..... I'm terrible for remembering the ad and not the product...) have one out for this Christmas with Bing Crosby 'rapping' or 'beatboxing' or whatever it is called. There was also a Volksvagen (?) ad a few years ago that butchered Gene Kelly's original Singin' In The Rain sequence into a hip hop confection of some sort.

Of them all, though, the advertising campaign that made me the angriest by appropriating something cultural was the Mercedes Benz advertisement that use the Janis Joplin 'Mercedes Benz' song. Clearly they had completely missed the point of the song.

 

[Tomasso]

[video=youtube;cdy3orO6tQA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdy3orO6tQA[/video]

[video=youtube;dbCkgKQhxrQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbCkgKQhxrQ[/video]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

It started with the Al Jolson ad for perfume, using "Tonight About a Quarter to Nine", didn't it? And wasn't there a Louis Armstrong one that used "A Kiss to Build a Dream On"?
Agreed, beyond tacky.

I believe that the Al Jolson commercial was for Citizen watches. And the recording of A Quarter To Nine used in the commercial was by Clive Baldwin who's known as the "Living Voice of Jolson."

Back in the '70s I remember a car commercial that featured a World War I doughboy dancing on the roof of the car to a jingle done to the tune of Over There.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think the whole practice of tying in Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays in with sales hype is obnoxious and offensive. That habit didn't really catch on until the mid-fifties or so -- thank you real-life Mad Men -- but it didn't get completely out of control until the "President's Day" nonsense started in the '70s. At that rate, I expect somewhere around the 2060s there'll be "MLK Day Sales Extravaganzas" to contend with as well.

Are we the only country that honors its national heroes by turning them into used-car-selling caricatures?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I think the whole practice of tying in Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays in with sales hype is obnoxious and offensive. That habit didn't really catch on until the mid-fifties or so -- thank you real-life Mad Men -- but it didn't get completely out of control until the "President's Day" nonsense started in the '70s. At that rate, I expect somewhere around the 2060s there'll be "MLK Day Sales Extravaganzas" to contend with as well.

Are we the only country that honors its national heroes by turning them into used-car-selling caricatures?

Not only that but nowadays practically every holiday has been turned into a three-day weekend. In the case of Thanksgiving, it's become a four day weekend with Black Friday virtually a separate holiday in of itself. When did this odious practice begin?

It bugs me to no end that a holiday may fall on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, for example. but is observed on the Monday preceding or following it.

Charlie Chaplin as an avatar for Xerox photocopiers in the '80s was kind of dopey -- but then, Chaplin himself enjoyed his own imitators, so he probably would have approved

Story has it that Chaplin was travelling incognito once and as a lark entered a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest where he won second prize.

 

[DecoDame]

How does everybody feel about those old Gap print ads, where they had a artsy pic of an vintage icon and then the tag line "(Fill in the blank) wore khakis"?

I remember Amelia Earhart and Gene Kelly being two so "honored". I've also seen a wicked parody with a moody portrait of the Fuhrer and the tag "Hitler wore khakis"...

Earhart was used in Apples's "Think Different" ads, too. And I believe Einstein?

Marketing appropriations are inherently pretty shameless. Whatever works. They turn these people's accomplishments into a brand they themselves can peddle.

I'm aware some of these same icons marketed themselves pretty hard, but it was their choice, and under their control, more or less. And using their images now to sell peanut butter or what have you just eventually dilutes the very image they're using, IMO.

I really wonder what I would do if I were a family member in charge of such an estate...Could I resist?

 

[Widebrim]

It bugs me to no end that a holiday may fall on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, for example. but is observed on the Monday preceding or following it.

Yep, except for Christmas, 4th of July, and Veterans Day.

 

[Ed Bass]

Not sure if this qualifies (kind of think it does, though), but Natalie Cole recording "duets" with her long-gone father, Nat. I cringe every time I hear one. How long is she going to ride on his coattails?

UGH! I agree completely. Hank Jr. also did this with a recording by his dead father Hank Sr. And the ultimate musical sacrelige was Paul, George and Ringo stooping to this level when they recorded "Free As A Bird" using a poor recording of an unfinished John Lennon song. It was a tacky ploy and the song was a disappointment on every level....and I'm a HUGE Beatle fan so I can forgive much, but not that.

Best,
Toots

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Still, some of these commercials can be pretty funny.

[video=youtube;vBR6wvMz8dg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBR6wvMz8dg&feature=related[/video]

 

[Edward]

UGH! I agree completely. Hank Jr. also did this with a recording by his dead father Hank Sr. And the ultimate musical sacrelige was Paul, George and Ringo stooping to this level when they recorded "Free As A Bird" using a poor recording of an unfinished John Lennon song. It was a tacky ploy and the song was a disappointment on every level....and I'm a HUGE Beatle fan so I can forgive much, but not that.

Best,
Toots

Ah ,that was hardly anything new from the Beatles - a good 50% of the White Album should never have seen the light of day.

 

[Michaelson]

There is/was a L.A. Kustom car club - "The Goodfellas". The agreed to allow the Backstreet Boys to film a video with them with the Boys dancing on top of the cars....A Backstreet Boy, jumping up and down on top of a '49 Merc. Freakin' sacrilege. I know a Rockabilly guy who has seen the video; he lapses into enraged silence whenever it (the video) is mentioned. The Goodfellas became the laughing stock of the LA car scene for a long time afterwards. Maybe they still are.

I know if my daughter caught someone jumping up and down on the top of HER '49 Merc, there would be one more unmarked grave down in the woods behind our house.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[bunnyb.gal]

I know if my daughter caught someone jumping up and down on the top of HER '49 Merc, there would be one more unmarked grave down in the woods behind our house.

Regards! Michaelson

Uh, one MORE?...(gulp!)