Bird's Eye and Travelodge

Soft toys are brilliant, aren't they? They never need feeding, walking, or putting down after they’ve been hit by a car. They’re always there when you’re watching a scary film and need something to hide behind. However, whilst we’ve been letting these cute and furry inanimate objects surreptitiously slip into our homes, a couple of adverts doing the rounds currently have revealed their true nature.
In the first post I ever wrote about advertising, I commented on Bird’s Eye’s attempt to sex up fish fingers, which resulted in an advert that I would find uncomfortable to watch with my parents (which, I have to concede, suggests that it worked). In their most recent advert, they’ve gone back to more childish themes with this advert, depicting a polar bear in a freezer:



Ok, so maybe not entirely childish themes. Judging by this polar bear’s accent and general demeanour, he is in fact, in one of the higher positions in some sort of kitchen-based crime syndicate. His last words “I’m watching you” are more heavily laced with menace than every line that Hannibal Lecter has uttered. Combined.
To be honest, I’m quite surprised that there isn’t a corpse somewhere else in the freezer. Although I get the impression that he’s far to good at getting his goons to do the dirty work for him. Expect a director’s cut soon.

In fact, you barely have to wait, as Travelodge has already produced an advert illustrating the grittier side of the soft toy underworld:



Yes, here is Mr Sleep and the Zzz Squad dispensing mob justice to bed-based paraphernalia (and apparently a bear). And sure, whilst it may appear that they’re only removing the bad things which could inhibit a night’s sleep, how long until they start dipping into less legitimate activities? Tomorrow you lose a cushion you quite liked, the next day, it could be a finger.

Sleep tight.

Music In Adverts: Part 2

So a couple of days ago I was talking about good music in adverts, about how adverts sometimes perfectly capture the tone of a song, and present wonderful (or in the above case, amusingly anachronistic) imagery to go along with it. On other occasions, however, they completely debase the original meaning of the song, and enrage me in the process.

Having spent a while talking about Nina Simone in the last post, it seems fitting to use her as the prime example in this one. Anyone who’s watched television in the UK in the last couple of years will have heard the remix of her singing “Ain’t got no/ I’ve got life” on the Muller corner adverts. It’s a good song, and the remix is even more upbeat.
Recently, however, Muller has been getting a little too creative with it, changing the lyrics:



Here is a list, according to the song, of the things that Nina Simone had: Hair on her head, brains, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, smile, tongue, chin, neck, boobies, heart, soul, back, sex, arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, liver, blood, life, headaches, due dates and bad times too.
There is no mention of berry, cherry or anything else they claim to own in the most recent advert. They've taken a song about remaining positive- even when you're down and out- and turned it into a song about things you can eat with yoghurt.
Not only are the lyrics changed, but it’s also being bleated in an out of tune fashion by someone who couldn’t carry a tune if it came with handles.

In the same vein, here is what may happen if Muller is allowed to keep using their bastardised version of the song:



I can no longer sing along to Daydream Believer without accidentally slipping in lyrics about the farcical state of my lawn.

Music In Adverts

A few weeks ago I talked about the John Lewis commercial currently doing the rounds, part of what makes this advert so good is the music in it (Billy Joel’s “Always A Woman”, performed by Fyfe Dangerfield), which got me thinking about music in adverts.

I owe a shameful amount of my musical tastes to advertisers and the music they've chosen to put in adverts. Some stuff I’d likely have discovered anyway- such as Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower”, which was used on a car advert a few years ago or Nina Simone, who’s song “Sinnerman” featured in the Renault Clio Adverts slightly more recently (along with the utterly gorgeous Annelise Hesme).



And then there are other songs that I probably would never have heard had they not been put in an advert, such as The Flaming Lips’ “Silver Trembling Hands” recently featured on a Nokia advert or Martin Grech’s “Open Heart Zoo”, featured on a Lexus advert years ago- I bought his album purely on the strength of the 30 seconds of the song appeared in the advert.



Part of the reason I love the songs mentioned above is because of the associations I have already formed because of the adverts- Open Heart Zoo, several years later, still makes me think of abandoned streets- and I typically listen to it when I’m walking home after a night out, and Silver Trembling Hands puts me in the mindset of being at a crowded gig with a really good atmosphere, so usually goes on before I go out drinking and clubbing. Sinnerman just makes me want to argue about Britain being better than France with a stunningly attractive French lady.

Ok, so that last case may not be true, but the first two are, and it is a testament to the skill of the advert’s producers that they’ve managed to pick up the overall tone of the song well enough to place imagery with it that isn’t too dissonant, whilst still selling their product.

To illustrate this point, check out the John Lewis video mentioned above, with a subtly altered soundtrack

Check back later this week, for when adverts in music goes catastropically wrong, and I'm not just talking about Calgon and that infernal jingle of theirs.

Epuron

Just a very quick post, as I’ve been relatively busy over the last week or so, it might take a while to get what the advert actually was for (I got it from the hair tussling).

I thought it was quite a creative approach to attempting to change attitudes on wind power- the lack of hippies and men in white lab coats threatening us with imminent drowning probably made it slightly more accessible.

That’s all for now, as some spam in my inbox today might have said: expect something longer, soon.