Mountain Dew commercials rarely make me sit up and pay attention – I simply don’t like their product or most of their commercials. But, towards the end of this ad, which begins with the familiar trope of extreme people drink Mountain Dew, I practically jumped out of my seat:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ95LQLDZ3w]
What is Jack Hanna, the mild-mannered animal lover who populated the TV on the lazy Sunday mornings of my youth, doing in a Mountain Dew commercial? I don’t know. Do I like it? I still don’t know. But, it did do the job that TV ads are supposed to, and that was make me pay attention. And they did it by subverting their normal routine for commercials (although it still was the central theme).
Jack Hanna
The oddity that is Jack Hanna in a Mountain Dew ad reminded me of another reoccurring TV presence; Fall Out Boy carrying the logo for Circuit City. I guess it isn’t odd that Fall Out Boy would do advertisements – they’re extremely popular and in a place to do so. It’s just odd that they chose to flog products for Circuit City, a corporate entity that doesn’t exactly scream “teenage rebellion.” Again, it isn’t making me run to my nearest branch (I don’t even know if there is a Circuit City near me), but it made me wake up from my natural commercial break stupor. Here it is, in its full, grainy, bootlegged YouTube nature:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIm_xh4p1Q8]
In The (Music-Related) News:
*Rage Against The Machine made quite a scene out in St. Paul last week for the Republican National Convention. Here they are performing a couple of a cappella renditions of “Bulls On Parade” and “Killing In The Name Of”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYwzW2QFnwo]
Punk percussion protest it ain’t, and positive it ain’t either. There’s a reason they brought Wayne Kramer of the MC5 out on stage during one of their numerous shows to perform “Kick Out The Jams” – Rage is trying to incite the same “revolutionary” attitude that made a mockery of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Frankly, nothing really came out of that episode except for some broken bones and a tired-old tale for old-hippies to remind our generation of our inability to challenge authority. Sure, there was a challenge, but out of the hostility came no change. And the only thing that will come of Rage’s “protest” are the same old thoughts that people hold towards young anarchists and vice versa. Until Rage drops the tired-out diatribe meant to incite police violence, they’ll be unable to achieve much of anything outside of some press clips.
*The New York Times has a great article on how Western entertainment is providing an escape and challenge to the hierarchy of power in the Gaza strip. Gotta wonder if anyone in Gaza is rocking out to the new Panic! At The Disco album…
*More news about TV on the Radio‘s Dear Science, is getting me more and more excited about the album’s release. Good thing September 23rd is right around the corner. Again, the New York Times hops in with an excellent article on the group. It’s a quick narrative that briefly mentions how the new album and the band are strikingly anomalous in the Williamsburg of their past, present, and nearly-gentrified future. Sections discussing the group’s “allusive” sound and a quote where Kyp Malone mentions that, “I’ve been done with cool for years,†reminds me of my own interpretation of emo. And the critique connecting “Golden Age” to Michael Jackson is reminiscent of something I wrote a little while ago.
And now, a (fake) word to wrap everything up:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBi_auaPtGM]
