Classic Rock

These days my media diet is kind of limited.

I'm either watching the news or indulging in some sports. When I'm not watching news and sports, I'm reading about news and sports, via the NY Times, the online version of the Washington Post and various books documenting the historical nightmare we are all living through.

I'm currently shuttling through three books, Jon Meacham's The Soul of America, David Frum's Trumpocracy and Bob Woodward's Fear, a heart-quickening page burner.

That said, one particular TV commercial has become inescapable. It features a luxury SUV and the earwormish song, "She's a Rainbow."

Need I say more?
No, I need not.

Because this spot is in the heaviest rotation. And even when it's not on TV, it's in my god damned head, with that cloying little piano riff.

Make it stop.

Not only do I want them to stop airing this mind numbing spot, I want the ad industry to stop appropriating rock music and slapping it to some well shot car porn. It's hackneyed. It's lazy. And it's devoid of any persuasive value.

When I see agencies do this, and believe me I've seen it done a lot (The Who, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac) I see the white flag of desperation.

AGENCY: "OK, you don't want to buy any of our real ideas, what if we spend a few million dollars and get a really cool soundtrack?"

CLIENT: "Now you're cooking with gas."

It's sad. Like those middle aged men I see shopping by themselves at the supermarket. They don't know how to cook or prepare a meal so they resort to microwavable or pre-made meals that require all the effort of pushing a button. "Alexa, nuke my penne aribiatta  for 3 minutes."

Now, allow me to climb down off my soapbox and proceed to smash said soapbox over my own head. Because I not only write this critique from experience, I am guilty of the same infraction.

Years ago, when I was at Y&R, we found ourselves in danger of losing the Jaguar account. The dealers were particularly unhappy with our attempts to "build a brand." Or, "carve out mind share."  Or, "tap into our authentic DNA." They wanted to move some metal and wanted a classic rock song that would do the trick.

(please pardon the low resolution, this version of the spot was retrieved from YouTube and is NOT in my portfolio)



The dealers loved it.
Consumers loved it.
And sales went up.

Shows you what I know.

And to prove that no good deed goes unpunished I spent the next six months crammed in a dark edit bay, recutting 37 versions of this schlock and listening to this crap song over and over agin, until I no longer loved my car.

Or my job.