All or nothing

The use of popular songs in commercials is a common advertising practice. That's been going on for years, and I imagine will continue as long as there are both popular songs and advertising. Associating a product with a song in undoubtedly one of the most effective ways to convey a message in 30 seconds; it takes advantage of everything the song has already built up in the mind of the viewer.

Okay, enough with that obvious introduction.

This is not a complaint about the co-opting of art for commercial purposes. As I just noted, it works. Any objection on my part would reveal more envy of not having created something that could be co-opted than any devotion to artistic integrity.

This is not wistfully lamenting how I can't believe songs from my youth are included in ads now. That would merely be revealing me having blithely ignored that fact that I'm not young any more. (Which to a great extent I have been blithely ignoring, but that's not pertinent here.)

So what is this? Well, allow me to direct you to a couple specific examples of commercials guilty of what specifically draws my ire:
A recent Hampton ad uses "With a Little Help from My Friends".
And a Chevy campaign not surprisingly uses "American Pie".

Unless one stops to think about it, what these do that's different than other commercials with songs in them may not be apparent. I, of course, can't help but think about it (and because you've read this far, I may as well elaborate for the benefit of those who are not thusly afflicted).

The Hampton spot has a re-recorded version of the song featuring these lyrics:
What would you do if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Yeah, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
With a little help from my friends

For those who don't know the Fab Four off the top of their head that well, the corresponding portion of the original song has these lyrics:
What would you think if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

That's right. They didn't want to include "I get high" in their commercial so they re-configure the chorus to simply skip over that line, even though it need not be interpreted as alluding to drug use (but yeah, it probably would).

Let's move on to the Chevy ad. It features only part of the chorus of Don McLean's opus:
Bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee
But the levee was dry

The reference to "Chevy" makes it pretty obvious as to why they wanted to use the song; I'm sure the only delay in their using it was how long before they could get the rights to it. But let's look at the entire chorus, just in case you don't recall it:
Bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee
But the levee was dry
And good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
"This'll be the day that I die"

Okay. I get it. That second half of the chorus is not necessarily what would seem the most upbeat words ever sung, alluding to drinking and death. (Of course, they didn't prevent the song from becoming a huge hit--even at over 8 minutes long.) However, that's where the song goes immediately after the portion that's looped over and over for the commercial.

And that's what it is: The selectively chose just the parts of the songs they wanted and pretended the other part doesn't exist, simply by virtue of leaving it out. But because I know and like the songs, I know what those parts are, and rather than paying attention to the sales pitch in the voice-over I am dwelling on what they did to re-configure the art for their commerce. I am not left with a pleasant association but find myself even less inclined to stay at a Hampton hotel or buy a Chevrolet.

I am not suggesting that most people are like me, by the way. I am not saying I fail to grasp why they did what they did, nor that it is necessarily ineffective in a general sense.

However, I think that if a company is choosing to get the rights to a song to use in support of their product or service, that company must accept the song as it is. If some part of the song that makes them want to use it doesn't fit in with their vision, they should find another song. It strikes me as a fair compromise between maintaining the artistic integrity of the music and the needs of the company to sell whatever they have to sell.

With all the regulations that the FCC imposes, is it too much to ask that they intercede in this? Generally I don't go for government intervention, but with all they've done to help Corporate America, can't they step in on the part of the artists?

Or at least force them to go with a not-yet-that-popular song and get the artist to just re-record the damn thing with overtly adapted lyrics, as Outback did with an Of Montreal song. Then all pretense of integrity is abandoned by both parties.

Or get them to make me forget. Believe me, if I could get this out of my brain, I happily would.

~

Perhaps I just need to get high on some whiskey and rye.