This probably sounds a bit rich coming so quick on the heels of my rant about Joe Jackson selling gorditas for Taco Bell, but I'm actually really digging Devo's new tune for that Dell's XPS m1330 commercial. Maybe some of my fellow energy-domed purists cried foul, but at the very least, the ad keeps in character with the band's long-standing embrace of new technology. Moreover, at least it's an original tune, not something they dusted off and re-hashed. For more on the ad and Devo's latest doings (including working on a new album!!!), check out this rather exhaustively lengthy piece on Mark Mothersbaugh that recently ran in LA Weekly.
Devo's record isn't entirely squeaky clean, though. They have leant their music to bullshit like that Swiffer commercial and a few other unlikely choices. Hell, I still haven't forgiven them for pairing up with Disney for the abortive Devo 2.0 stunt which, mercifully, has since sunk without a trace.
As I mentioned in that Joe Jackson post, though, it's a little late to be getting all hot and bothered about this stuff. The list of similar appropriations is dizzyingly long and, more often than not, profoundly depressing. Last year, you may remember, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) used "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" by the Buzzcocks to push their message, although given that the Buzzcocks themselves are almost of retirement age, perhaps that one's not so shocking. Even my beloved Cop Shoot Cop leant their instrumental, "Migration", to Nike. While the finished product was inarguably a cool, stylish clip, the pairing of Cop Shoot Cop with -- well, fuckin' meatnecked, pigskin-tossing jocks is still a jarring one for me. Talk about strange bedfellows.
Click here for a few more songs co-opted for advertising purposes.
This handbill pictured above has nothing to do with this ad. I just found it in an image search and thought it, well, fit the bill.
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