The Consumer Republic

Two-Part Harmony I came up with a no-miss idea for an ad the other day. The product: a headache remedy. The visuals: a black-and-white montage of working people in pain, rubbing their temples on the commuter train, wincing in rush-hour traffic, collapsing in a heap at the dinner table. The soundtrack: John, Paul, George and Ringo harmonizing, "It's been a hard day's night/And I've been working like a dog." Yes, the actual Beatles singing on a commercial! Can't you just see and hear it? The suffering working stiff reaches for the pill bottle (insert product shot here) as the Fab Four sing, "But when I get home to you/I find the things that you do/You make me fee-el aw-right." Just think how many people who watched The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 get headaches--they'll relate to it! C'mon, is this brilliant or what? Well, maybe not. But surely you can imagine such an ad, since these days, TV is flooded by spots very much like it. Want customers to believe that Nissan offers an enjoyable ride? Have The Monkees cry it from the soundtrack with "I'm a Believer." Trying to convince consumers a Taurus is inexplicably exciting? Lay a track of The Who's "Can't Explain" over a montage of drivers grimacing with glee. Want people to get the message Toyota is the car for every day? Purchase the rights to Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People" and plaster it over retail spots and image ads alike. And don't think grooving to a classic rock playlist is for cars alone. Last year, Fidelity Investments let the Chambers Brothers give voice to its ad with "Time Has Come Today." The space-suited Intel whosits get down and dirty to the tune of "Play That Funky Music." And the ongoing Burger King campaign is practically a classic rock station unto itself. Perhaps this is only fitting. This epidemic of rock-song-as-strategy spots is to advertising creativity what fast food is to a nourishing meal. In fact, there are so many of these ads out there, it's hard to remember a not-so-distant time when it was a little shocking to hear a rock icon on a commercial. Nike created a furor several years ago when it bought the rights to The Beatles' "Revolution" from Michael Jackson. A lot of people were aghast at the notion of "Revolution" as a kind of post-jingle jingle--but the ad got noticed. Then two years ago, Microsoft purchased--for a reported $12 million--the rights to The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" for use as the anthem of the Windows '95 hype-o-rama. Thus, the public got used to the recycling of greatest hits as commercial soundtracks. Besides, whatever cultural resonances these playlist perennials originally had were eroded long ego, worn smooth by the constant pounding of the classic-rock airwaves. Stones, schmones. Former pop hits are just marketing fodder now. If there is one ad, however, responsible for leading all the industry lemmings off this particular creative cliff, it's Janis Joplin's seared-vocal-chords paean to Mercedes-Benz. Here is a luxury German car with oodles of brand equity, yet its image was perceived as a bit too Establishment. How could the luxury company convince aging rock 'n' rollers with plenty of disposal income that Mercedes is relevant to them? Recruiting Joplin, the baby boomer's Edith Piaf--so raw, so nonconformist, so conveniently dead--was a brilliant masterstroke. Moreover, the song itself is a genuine folk tribute to the mystique of Mercedes, celebrating the car as the stuff of which down-and-out dreams are made. It almost begged to be turned into a commercial. (I suspect there are plenty of 16-year-old viewers who just assume Mercedes paid her to record it.) Like most good ads, the Joplin spot was breathtakingly simple: a car, a song, a memory, a bond forged with ex-hippies who'd made a killing in the stock market. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before people realized this gimmick works for any product--cars, cheeseburgers, financial services--you name it. Of course, a real creative idea might well cost the client less, but such things are much harder to come by. Instead, the ad industry realized that there are hundreds of songs out there that can be had for a check with enough zeros on it. Just pick an emotion, dig out an appropriate oldie-but-goodie, add money and stir: Voilˆ! A "relevant" ad is born. So I can't help feeling that I could come up with a golden-age rock spot just as relevant as the ones I see. The truth is, anyone could. As it is, these ads require consumers to do all the heavy lifting. The audience provides all the emotional associations with the music, all the memory-laden meanings, all the context. Without consumers, these ads are nothing. And when consumers do all the work, what do we need creativity for?

Brand Marketing

The Consumer Republic

Debra Goldman

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Debra Goldman