Soooo a real company (McDonald’s) with a fake clown named Ronald Mc Donald made a real ad with the fake clown petting a real dog playing the role of a fake dog who is the mascot for a real company (Taco Bell) that made a real ad with real people named Ronald Mc Donald like the fake clown. With all the fake/real back and forth, it’s no wonder we can’t tell if the food is real or fake.
Ford got a chance to shine this week by playing off Cadillac’s recent widely-panned homage to American materialism. Check out both ads back to back:
That Ford scored some cool points by using an afro-clad black woman touting sustainable farming is a:
a. wonderful example of the power of american multiculturalism
b. a cynical way of using women, people of color, and environmentalists to shill for a multinational corporation
c. a calculated way of using issues people care deeply about to market product to women, minorities and working class folk
d. yes
Hint: Ford created the ad, hitting three demos with one fresh face, and even built a brand new Youtube channel called “Upside” in response to Cadillac’s script. They landed over 2000 news stories and nearly a million views in one weekend. Caring, or calculated, or both?
I’d say this isn’t the last upside ad we’ll see from Ford. Be on the lookout for the accompanying interactive website; the hashtag #Upside is already treanding.
To celebrate Easter and Help you with that lent promise, Dunkin Donuts has introduced the peep donut, a little processed pastel piece of heaven, topped with the icon spun sugar sweet chick peep.
People have a bizzare if loving relationship with the peep. Someone took the time to make this:
and this:
along with a million other little scenes made of/with peeps
So sticking a peep on a donut seems like it should have happened sooner. With recent news that obesity among young people is down, you may be thinking the peeps donut is just glazed devil, but hold on! Eat your peeps donut with abandon! The peeps donut, weighing in with 310 calories has less calories than several of the healthy eating options:
Wu Tang Clan, rap royalty and cultural icons, recently put out their first single in 7 years, Keep Watch. The album is from the promised sixth LP from the group, Better Tomorrow.
If you’re a Wu Tang Fan–and who isn’t–you’re looking forward to hearing some new material. Wu is hoping one fan is willing to go the extra mile to get that fresh stuff.
A second album has been recorded by Wu Tang in secret. While that may have you scraping your bitcoins for a download, chances are you won’t hear it unless you are lucky enough to attend one of the art gallery events previewing the album, titled Once Upon A time In Shaolin, before its sale.
Wu Tang has decided to release only one copy of the album to the highest bidder. Wu Tang has always been enterprising, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that they are thinking about a unique way to distributetheir work.
The reasons for this revolutionary record release are perhaps not (totally)so materially driven as you may think. Hip Hop has been little more than product in America for some time now, and Wu Tang hopes to get people to conceive of Hip Hop as the art that is has been and could be again
“The idea that music is art has been something we advocated for years,” says RZA. “And yet its doesn’t receive the same treatment as art in the sense of the value of what it is, especially nowadays when it’s been devalued and diminished to almost the point that it has to be given away for free.”
But releasing the album to the art world instead of the airwaves means that unless a corporation steps in and snaps up the album to give to its customers for publicity, the album could go to a collector, never to be heard by the public. Neither buyer guarantees elevation of the work to art status. Either way, Wu Tang stands to make millions and challenge the traditional boundaries of the genre. Both ways leave long time fans behind.
Somehow, having a single wealthy collector or worse yet, a corporation owning a seminal masterpiece from a classic hip hop group seems to continue the commodification of hip hop in a new sphere even as it limits its availability to loyal fans.
This is only the last in several experiments in music releases. With digital music threatening the ability of artists and companies to tightly control the sale of its products, artist are getting creative. Beyoncé’s album Beyoncé surprised everyone, while her hubby’s Magna Carta was given as a gift to a million Samsung users.
Do you think Wu’s limited release will spark widespread appreciation of hip hop as art, or will putting Wu Tang on the auction block make it chattel music?
Susan X Jane 
