Slate's worst ad song ever competiton has been neatly won by, well, the worst ever pairing of an ad with a song: Royal Carribbean Cruise Line's use of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life". My jaw was certainly on the floor the first time I saw that ad. Can you get it "in the ear" on Royal Carribbean? Also nice, though:
"The NFL's use of Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' in a Super Bowl ad for itself. The ad: A montage of home movies and official films shows fans enjoying the thrills of the sport with Reed's song about heroin and suicide playing in the background."
Ummm, yah. On the other hand, for straight-up ads for Quaaludes, Pantopon, and more, see this (via b0ingb0ing). Mmm, Pantopon Rose.
I had not known that cough had undone so many. Plenty of soundtrack choices though!
Posted by: Carlos | June 07, 2005 at 10:39 PM
Carnival Cruise lines' use of "If They Could See Me Now" is pretty damned annoying. I think that commercial ran in, like, the 80s, but it's burned into my memory, and I still get it stuck in my mind from time to time.
Posted by: Clancy | June 08, 2005 at 04:07 AM
I think there was a Jeep Wrangler (?) commercial featuring CCR's Fortunate Son... but just the first two lines:
Some folks are born to wave the flag,
Ooh, they're red, white and blue.
Presumably because continuing to the chorus don't mesh too good with the buy-cars-to-be-american theme:
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son.
It ain't me, it ain't me; I ain't no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!
Posted by: Cala | June 08, 2005 at 04:26 AM
Cala notes my all time favorite, but a close runner up is the Mercedes Benz ad featuring Janis Joplin.
Posted by: djw | June 08, 2005 at 04:49 AM
I'm just not offended by songs I like in commercials.
"Lust for Life" is a pretty happy song. It isn't particularly ironic. Iggy isn't making a stand against GTOs or government loans nor does Iggy think that one shouldn't have a "lust for life". The title phrase is repeated 28 times (almost twice as often as the word "help" is repeated in the Beatle song "Help") and has its middlebrow orgins in the Kirk Douglas Van Gogh biopic .
Given the multi-choice question:
What behavior should be excused by the phrase "lust for life"?
(a) paying 1500 dollars a week for a cruise.
(b) liquer, drugs and the flesh machine with Johnny Yen.
(c) chopping your ear off and mailing it to a prostitute.
I am going to have to go with (a) for public policy reasons. (a) may be wimpier than (b), but (b) is wimpier than (c). "Keeping it real" can be a bitch.
"Perfect day" is a sad song, but the actual lyics are pretty innoculous. Sangria in the park, the zoo and then a movie. Why not watch some football.
Posted by: Joe O | June 08, 2005 at 04:56 AM
Depending n the interpritation, Lust for Life is either about heroin adiction or STDs (flesh machines and skin itching leads me in the direction of the latter) Neithe rof which, however are really something you want to find on a cruise, unless William S. Burroughs is the captain and you plan on never getting off the boat.
Posted by: Keith | June 08, 2005 at 08:07 AM
well, keith, one of your main irritating side effects of heroin is constant itching, so, I think you should revert to the former. another, interestingly, is an inability to pee, but this mostly affects only guys. so I hear.
Posted by: belle waring | June 08, 2005 at 09:08 AM
Inability to pee? It's the inability to crap that's the killer.
Posted by: Mitch Mills | June 08, 2005 at 01:44 PM
Can't say I recall any inability to Pee- I suspect that's a story. And the inability to crap wasn't such a problem since I hardly ate anything. I can't say I recommend such a diet, though.
Posted by: m | June 08, 2005 at 03:22 PM
In the killing irony vein, there's always the use of Janis Joplin for selling Mercedes-Bez'es.
Posted by: Dan | June 08, 2005 at 03:32 PM
Since when is Perfect Day "about heroin and suicide"? Who wrote that? I think the NFL ad is less offensive than Mr Snidely McDont-have-a-freaking-clue-pants.
Posted by: Yan | June 11, 2005 at 06:01 AM
Yeah, the Royal Caribbean Cruise ad was pretty gobsmacking in the way it missed all the irony. I think I saw an ad recently which just used the introduction of "Lust For Life" without any lyrics.
And isn't "Perfect Day" about heroin? Not that Lou Reed is saying, but it's always been thought of as some sort of love song to heroin. "You made me forget myself; I thought I was someone else, someone good." Great use of it in the film version of Trainspotting.
Posted by: Daryl | June 12, 2005 at 01:40 PM
"You made me forget myself; I thought I was someone else, someone good."
I believe he is talking about the person he spent his perfect day with. I suppose he might have taken heroin to the park and the movies. But then the sangria would really be overkill. Now I can't get the image of solitary junkies trying to feed animals at the zoo out of my head.
It seems more insightful as a love song than drug and suicide song, or at least as a song about love as a form of narcotic and form of suicide: a highly efficient means of self-deception, flight, and self-immolation.
Posted by: Yan | June 13, 2005 at 03:10 AM
I suppose the heroin links with Perfect Day have become such conventional wisdom (e.g. here and here) that I've never really ever considered it as a straight-up love song. I'm still inclined to believe it's a fond love song to narcotics... for one, I can't imagine a straight-up Lou Reed love song. I've always just read the first verse as a poetic rendition of a blissful drugged-out state, rather than a literal "this is where I've taken smack" laundry list...
Posted by: Daryl | June 14, 2005 at 01:26 AM
To me, the final lines of "Perfect Day"--you're going to reap what you sow--repeated over and over, undercut the possibility of the song being about a relationship with a man/woman. It seems like those lines are saying that there is going to be a consequence for your actions, and why even bother to say that about a nice day with a man/woman.
Posted by: mark | February 24, 2006 at 07:23 AM