I mean, Iggy Pop-why is he selling 'Lust for Life' to Royal Caribbean cruise lines? One of the people who wrote in to me said, `Nothing says maritime comfort like a song about shooting up junk.'īRAND: (Laughs) Well, I wonder if people are angrier at the advertisers or angrier at the rock stars. It doesn't seem so much like it's about a fun family cruise and azure waters and snorkeling in a little lagoon. Yeah, this one was the number-one response from people, I think, partly because the commercial gets shown so often and it's been on recently. STEVENSON: You don't actually hear that lyric in the commercials, funnily enough. IGGY POP: (Singing) Here I come jamming in again with liquor and drugs and a fast machine.īRAND: OK, liquor and drugs on a Royal Caribbean cruise line. I think a lot of people prematurely rolled over in their graves when they heard him singing this song for Royal Caribbean cruise lines. FOGERTY: (Singing) And when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief,' ooh, they point the cannon at you.īRAND: Well, and speaking of an anti-establishment hero for a lot of people-Iggy Pop. And to see it used this way, it's just galling.īRAND: OK, well, we don't want to gall anyone. And Wrangler just sort of glosses over all of that, uses the first two lines, and it turns into a song that's about bland patriotism and a song about selling jeans. STEVENSON: Yes, because just as we did just now, they faded out right after those initial two lines, `Some folks are born made to wave the flag, ooh, their red, white and blue.' And then the next line is, `And when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief,' they point the cannon at you.' And it's a song that's a really angry song about the Vietnam War and about privilege. JOHN FOGERTY (Creedence Clearwater Revival): (Singing) Some folks are born made to wave the flag, ooh, that red, white and blue. OK, number two is 'Fortunate Son' by Creedence Clearwater Revival. A lot of people wrote in about how tragic it is that Janis Joplin, you know, sings this song that's all-it's, you know, an ironic song about capitalism and materialism, and Mercedes-Benz jumps on it to sell luxury automobiles. And people still have it in their memories. This ad came out-I believe it was in the mid-'90s-and people at the time were pretty outraged. I must make amends.ĬHADWICK: DAY TO DAY's Madeleine Brand discussed this and other transgressions with Slate's Seth Stevenson. JANIS JOPLIN: (Singing) Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz. Well, write in you did about how songs like Janis Joplin's 'Mercedes-Benz' was later used in a commercial by the carmaker. What we're talking about is songs whose meaning is contrary to what you'd think the advertiser was trying to get across. He asked readers and listeners to send in nominations for songs that have been misused in commercials. Last week, the advertising critic for our online partner, Slate magazine-that's Seth Stevenson-Seth issued a challenge.

Lust for life iggy pop