Like A Rock

"lone_liberal" (token-liberal) 03/23/2018 at 17:30 • Filed to: None

3

10

I’m sitting at my desk not feeling well so I thought I’d do a little shit posting instead of work. We all know how misunderstood the Springsteen song Born in the U.S.A. is. While a lot of people, and politicians, think it’s a jingoistic anthem it’s actually a song about a guy whose country has fucked him over. There is an automotive equivalent.

Chevy used Bob Seger’s Like a Rock for their truck adds for a long time. They used it as an anthem to show toughness and strength. The only problem is that, like a lot of Seger’s songs, it’s about the past. How tough and strong he used to be compared to now. It could be argued that maybe that makes the ads a little too truthful. Discuss.

benjrblant > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 17:50

2

Remember that one time that one truck company used that one excerpt from Dr MLK’s speech to sell trucks but it turns out that he was condemning buying the latest and greatest to keep up with the Jonses’? I ‘member.

WilliamsSW > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 17:57

1

And Mercedes-Benz at one point used Janis Joplin’s song by that name in its advertising, too.

lone_liberal > WilliamsSW 03/23/2018 at 18:01

1

I liked the Carnival Cruise ad that featured Iggy Pop singing about the liquor and drugs too.

WilliamsSW > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 18:06

0

Ha - yeah, listen to the lyrics of that song and it’s not exactly a family vacation that Iggy Pop is singing about there...

Also, do you recall when NFL Network somehow got the rights to “Every Day is Like Sunday” and used that in their ads?

lone_liberal > WilliamsSW 03/23/2018 at 18:12

1

I didn’t remember that! I just played the ad and it’s hilarious. Nothing says a good time like Morrissey singing about silent and gray Sundays.

WilliamsSW > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 18:26

1

Yeah, it’s perfect for advertising football — a light and cheery song about nuclear annihilation as only Morrissey can do...

ranwhenparked > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 19:36

0

That was Royal Caribbean, and, as I remember, they just repeated “lust for life” over and over again, and cut out literally all the other lyrics. Because, I mean, what else could they do?

ranwhenparked > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 19:37

1

See also almost every commercial usage of Fortunate Son, which usually just fade out after “that red, white and blue”.

lone_liberal > ranwhenparked 03/23/2018 at 19:38

0

You’re quite correct! See, if it was me I might not have used an Iggy Pop song with those lyrics. But that’s just me.

ranwhenparked > lone_liberal 03/23/2018 at 19:44

1

That would have been the smarter choice. I mean, if you’re paying for a song, why not pay for one that you can actually, you know, use.

Celebrity Cruises got a lot of mileage out of Simply the Best, and, while Chandris ran them, they could kind of play it with a straight face, too.