Music in Advertising

While watching The Oscars last week, I was about to leave the room when a Cadillac ad came on featuring The Pogues' "The Sunny Side of The Street." It took me by surprise. Caddy's seem more the provenance of blinged out rappers, rather than drunken Anglo-Irish poets. It's a great song, but the only lyric you hear is the final line of the chorus (not surprising, given the boozy lyrics).

Seen the carnival at Rome
Had the women I had the booze
All I can remember now
Is little kids without no shoes
So I saw that train
And I got on it
With a heartful of hate
And a lust for vomit
Now I'm walking on the sunnyside of the street

Stepped over bodies in Bombay
Tried to make it to the U.S.A.
Ended up in Nepal
Up on the roof with nothing at all
And I knew that day
I was going to stay
Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street

Been in a palace, been in a jail
I just don't want to be reborn a snail
Just want to spend eternity
Right where I am, on the sunnyside of the street

As my mother wept it was then I swore
To take my life as I would a whore
I know I'm better than before
I will not be reconstructed
Just wanna stay right here
On the sunnyside of the street



A few days later, I was again watching TV when a Mitsubishi car ad came on with a great, driving, crunchy bass line. I had seen the ad before, but it hadn't dawned on me who wrote the music. I was shocked when I realised that it was The Fall's "Clasp Hands" from their great last album, "Fall Heads Roll." Mark E. Smith's long running band of chaotic art rockers were the last people I expected to license their music to an ad - for a fucking car! However, this really shouldn't be that surprising, given that Smith has made a career of doing the opposite of what's expected of him. Not surprisingly, again, the idiosyncratic lyrics and Smith's barking voice are barely featured. His voice kicks in just as the ad ends.

Like I said, I was somewhat taken back. I always feel a little let down when my favorite bands shill for a car add (The Who for Nissan, The Buzzcocks for Subaru, Led Zepplin for Cadillac). However, despite the fact that it sticks in the craw to hear a song that means a lot to you selling a car, I ultimately have nothing against bands "selling out." If most people knew how hard it was to make money from records, they wouldn't be so down on bands that sell their souls for a little mammon. Many musicians, even those that "make it," never make a whole lot of dosh - most bands don't make a dime from record sales. The record company has to recoup costs first. Apparently it took Wilco four albums before they made money from album sales - and even then it was because they self-released the record.

Selling a song to an advertising company is a good way to make cash. Especially if you have had some hits, but your career is over in terms of record sales. Most bands, even those that are successful, continue playing live long after their album sales have lagged behind (example number one, The Rolling Stones). Live shows, although the heart of music, are a massive undertaking, slow ticket sales could leave a band in serious debt. Kicking back, while one of your tunes services the sale of a car, can hedge against these losses, and in many cases, make an artist more money with less effort.* However, I suspect the main reason many musicians hock their wares to advertising is not so much for the filthy lucre, but for the attention. Sting is on record saying that one of his albums was a non-starter in the sales stakes until he shilled for Jaguar. John Mellencamp sold that awful, if well-intentioned "Freedom Song" to Chevy and has seen some of his best album sales in years. At the end of the day, whatever about these dinosaurs, the more people who get to hear a great, truly indie band like The Fall the better.

Still... The Fall in a Mitsubishi add. We are a long way from my college years when even a sniff of "selling out" could doom a band to eternal unhipness.

Anyhow, here's the ad:

For good measure, here's the Cadillac ad:

* My understanding is that this is not a decision an artist makes alone. The record company almost always owns owns the master recording, and the publishing company will own a portion of the writing royalties. In many cases, the artist has the least control over what is sold.