With album sales in freefall, it was only a matter of time before bands started pimping their music out to sponsors. Fall Out Boy started the trend by endorsing Tag Body Spray in their Thnks Fr Th Mmrs video. Now it transpires plastic pop diva Fergie has inked a $3.7 million deal to promote clothing firm Candie in her lyrics.
Then again, name-dropping brand names in pop songs is nothing new. It just used to be a bit more subtle…
Outkast - Hey Ya
The now-legendary breakdown, “Shake it like a Polaroid picture!” has caused many a nightclub drunkard to dance like an absolute numpty. Whether it encouraged anyone to rush out and buy a Polaroid camera is less certain. Far superior to the original, here’s the Charlie Brown mash-up version of the video.
Run-DMC – My Adidas
“My Adidas cuts the sand of a foreign land/With mic in hand I cold took command.” On this 1986 single Run-DMC invested the Adidas brand with an almost mystical power. No wonder they were rewarded with their own line of trainers.
Snoop Dogg – Gin And Juice
Sales of Tanqueray gin, produced in Scotland, surely shot up when Snoop name-checked it in his low-riding ode to the joys of getting drunk and stoned. The brand has since appeared in songs by Amy Winehouse and Bruce Springsteen.
Paul Simon – Graceland
“The Mississippi delta was shining like a National guitar.” It’s one of Simon’s most arresting opening lines, yet only guitar geeks know that it refers to a specific brand of metallic-finish axe, like this one.
Jamie T – Sheila
The idea of a drunken, stumbling casualty spilling Stella over her boyfriend probably wasn’t quite the association the “reassuringly expensive” lager brand would wish for. Great tune, though.
12:44 PM | 13/07/2007
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