This document discusses the growing trend of music being used in television commercials to promote brands and launch the careers of lesser-known artists. It provides several examples of indie artists like Yael Naim and Major Maker who gained mainstream success after their songs were featured in popular commercials for Apple and Maynard's candy. The article also examines how music labels and distributors now actively work with marketing agencies to pair brands with songs in order to earn additional revenue and exposure for artists. While commercial tie-ins present new opportunities, brands must also choose songs carefully to avoid audiences associating the music more with the product than the other way around.

1. Summer 08
Jon Lajoie / Human gianT / MIKE MYERS / amy poehler / jACK BLACK
$4.95Issue 4 Volume 1
They’re hip, they’re cool, they’re 45(ish)
we catch up with iconic comedy troupe kids in the hall
The COmedy Issue?
SEXTING / YAEL NAIM / ADRIAN GRENIER / CANADA’S EX-TOP MODEL / TOKIO HOTEL / Summer fest guide
Will Ferrell mad libs
STARS! WE’RE JUST LIKE THEM
ELVIRA KURT’S LOVE LESSONSPlus

2. 8 NAKEDEYE
Contributors
keeners[ ]
Employees of the month
We love all of our contributors – but here are four that stood out this time around
Photographer Steven
Carty’s images have been
in numerous exhibitions,
including Hip Hop Immortals,
the largest exhibition of hip
hop photography in the world,
and the Kuumba festival at
Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre.
He has photographed and co-
directed for Fashion Television,
Bravo!News, MuchMusic
and MTV Select, and his
work has been featured in
such magazines as American
Photo, Jane, The Source
and Maclean’s. Carty was
recently selected for inclusion
in Carte Blanche, a new book
of Canadian contemporary
photography. He currently
works in Toronto, New York
and Vancouver. Check out his
spread on Olympic fashion
(p.82).
Christopher Paré is an
Anglo-Montrealer of
Francophone stock. He
played a rowdy college
student opposite Tom
Cruise in Stanley Kubrick’s
Eyes Wide Shut, and spent
four months in Kosovo
writing stories about
democracy, land mines
and the sex trade. His
work has been read by His
Holiness the Dalai Lama,
broadcast by CBC Radio,
and published by the United
Nations. He enjoys writing
about dance music and DJ
culture, has an obscenely
large record collection,
and desperately loves his
epicurean wife. This issue
he asks if commercials are
the new music videos.
(p. 30).
After living in Hong
Kong and London,
photographer Richmond
Lam settled in Montreal
to document the faces of
the city’s arts community.
His work has appeared
in publications such as
Vice, Spin, Anthem and
British Vogue, and he’s
got a roster of clients that
includes Sam Roberts
and Crystal Castles.
He counts Robert
Mapplethorpe and Hedi
Slimane among his
influences, and career
highlights include having
the front-page photo in
the National Post, Ottawa
Citizen and Calgary Herald
on the same day, as well
as shooting the Kids in
the Hall (p. 62).
Elizabeth Perle has finally
found her calling as a
professional celebrity
stalker. She started off
her journalism career
while interning at Bell
TV magazine and later
as managing editor at
the McGill Tribune. This
summer, she is relocating
to New York City to work
at Seventeen magazine
and hopes to someday
become the first female
editor-in-chief of Esquire. In
her spare time, she enjoys
idealizing Hillary Clinton and
quoting Star Wars when
making tough life decisions.
Check out Elizabeth’s
interviews with Canadian
comedian Deborah Theaker
(p. 49) and MTV’s Dan Levy
(p. 59).
Steven Carty
Richmond Lam
Christopher Paré
Elizabeth Perle

3. 30 NAKEDEYE
Ad it up[ ]
Commercial Appeal
Is the TV commercial the new music video? A catchy tune custom-fit to the right brand
can launch an indie artist to fame, while less subtle cash grabs can leave fans feeling
cold. Christopher Paré separates the rising stars from the sellouts
Beat
A hand appears from the right side of the screen and gently places a
10” by 13” manila envelope on a white, sterile surface set against a white,
sterile background. Cut to a close-up of the string-fastened flap, nimbly
undone by the disembodied digits. Out comes an impossibly thin laptop
computer which opens to reveal a high-resolution screen. Viewers are left
to marvel at the ergonomic wonder before them.
Though edited with Eisensteinian precision, this familiar sequence
of images is not fully meaningful without its now famous soundtrack.
Front and centre is the new MacBook Air, but top billing definitely goes
to the song that pulls it all together: “New Soul” by French-Israeli neo-folk
troubadour Yael Naim. The one-time Israeli Air Force Orchestra soloist
was a relative unknown until this year when Steve Jobs reportedly hand-
picked her tune to accompany the AirBook’s maiden TV spot. Her song
peaked at number seven on the Billboard Top 100, and can be purchased
directly from Apple’s website.
Before you cry “sellout,” let’s consider this from all angles. Is Kathleen
Hanna, the original riot grrrl, a sellout for her Le Tigre iPod spot? Is
Alabama 3 a sellout for their contribution to the opening credits of The
Sopranos? With retail sales in the toilet and an industry in flux, musicians
who find fame and fortune (i.e., enough cash to fend off their creditors)
through brand association and marketing platforms deserve a little
leniency. Indie is all well and good, but those ghetto-fabulous haircuts
don’t pay for themselves.
Major in marketing
Naim is just the latest in a series of lesser-known artists to penetrate the
public consciousness via admittedly clever ad campaigns. Santogold
(Miller Lite), Sweden’s Teddybears (Heineken, Tab Energy), and Canadian
electropop darlings Dragonette (JC Penney) issued a collective “suck it”
to haughty cries of treason, and the rest, as they say, is gravy. No one,
however, illustrates the new pop paradigm more aptly than Toronto’s
Major Maker. Who? Glad you asked.
Prior to last summer, Major Maker was a blip on the radar at best.
Formed in 2006 by Todor Kobakov and Lindy Vopnfjord, their song
“Rollercoaster” was featured in a campaign for Maynards candy in
July 2007, setting off a chat-room frenzy among viewers dying to know
who came up with the hook-laden hit. Maynards’ parent company,
Cadbury Adams, was inundated with inquiries about “Rollercoaster.”
Major Maker’s hotly anticipated People Carrier EP, expertly shaped by
acclaimed studio engineer John O’Mahony (U2, Prince), followed, as did
more filthy marketing lucre (Kobakov was recently commissioned to
compose the original score for a Vodafone campaign featuring Oscar
winner Dame Judi Dench).
Not-so-strange bedfellows
The pairing of music and marketing, while hardly new (ask Paul Anka),
is an entirely different beast today as compared to the halcyon days
of Pepsodent and Brylcreem jingles (a little dab’ll do ya!). Increasingly
sophisticated approaches help account for consumers’ growing
acceptance of art in the service of commerce.
Patrick Beauduin recalls his first foray into the world of pop and
product. The year was 1983. The product, Jell-O. The artist? Elvis. The King
would have been proud. Beauduin, a VP with marketing company
Cossette Communications in Montreal, says the only difference between
then and now is that the process has evolved into its own industry.
“Music companies like Sony and BMG have launched special
departments which work directly with agencies to see how they can
produce or launch music for a commercial or platform of marketing for a

4. NAKEDEYE 31
brand, and that’s quite new. Before, the idea would come from the creative
department, but now we have partnerships with some companies that
are looking at the marketing platforms of some brands and proposing
songs to be used for that commercial.”
The majors aren’t the only ones looking to cash in on the commercial
potential of their talent stable – even the most seemingly independent
labels are positioned to reap the spoils of this emergent business model.
Take PIAS Entertainment Group, for example: according to the label/
distributor’s website, they specialize in “the definitive marketing, sales,
distribution and licensing solution, offering a highly professional and
flexible service for music, film, comedy and sport repertoire on an
international basis.” Soulwax, Vitalic, Mogwai – all yours for the right
price. This is common practice among distributors, comments a lawyer
within the Canadian music industry, who says this additional revenue
stream represents big bucks.
But dollars and cents are secondary when compared to the potential
exposure an artist stands to gain from a buzz-worthy campaign.
“It’s completely changed.,” says Beauduin. “[Labels and distributors]
know the power of advertising. If you match a really well-known brand
with an artist that isn’t well known, it could help launch a recording
career.
“The fact that I used Elvis Presley 25 years ago for a brand of Jell-O
helped the awareness of the brand, but today it could help everyone in
the music world, and that’s why distributors are looking to the brand and
the platform and saying, ‘OK, if you want, you could use Cat Power for
such and such.’”
Considering he cut his teeth in the early ’80s, it makes sense that Beauduin
credits the marriage of music and marketing to the birth of MTV. “MTV has
completely changed the world of advertising because they introduced
the idea that music can have strong imagery. It created a new territory of
advertising, and today we’re going even further with new partnerships.”
He’s quick to point out that there’s no guarantee the artist or song
you choose will be a perfect fit, and that decision-making ultimately
boils down to intuition. “You can’t test that… It’s an emotional approach.”
Risky business
Apple took a risk by going with the then unknown Naim, and lucky for
them the dividends were considerable. Others, like the Gap, tend to bet
conservatively by going with well-known, middle-of-road fare that has
all the emotion of, well, khaki pants. The risk of going with something too
familiar, explains Beauduin, is that people tend to remember the song
and not the brand. “If you use a song by an unknown artist and the music
is really well done and fits with the brand, for sure it helps the artist. And
at the same time, you’re sure that your brand is still in the mindset of the
consumer; there’s no risk that people will recall the song or artist over the
message. It’s a question of balance.”
If anything, it’s established acts that cheapen it for everyone else.
The Rolling Stones, who had previously never licensed their songs out of
“artistic integrity,” finally caved in (under the weight of all that money,
no doubt) and allowed Microsoft to use “Start Me Up” for their Windows
95 campaign. The exact dollar amount is undisclosed – estimates vary
between USD 8 million and 14 million – but one can be sure that it kept
Mick and the boys in tight slacks for at least the next decade.
As in the above pairing, so-called classics engage on only the most
literal level, e.g., Ford trucks and Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock.” What say you,
ad man?
“I guess you could say Apple is a little more subtle than Ford.” n
Rock Gone Wrong
Jingle writers are getting sent to the
poorhouse for this? Crumbelievable!
Violent Femmes, “Blister in the Sun”
For Wendy’s
Nothing says “delicious fast food” like a song about wet dreams.
Not the Violent Femmes’ proudest moment, but then again, neither
was the time they appeared on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Lou Reed, “A Perfect Day”
For the NFL
Pairing a song about heroin with clips of football players to promote
the 2000 Super Bowl was strangely apt, but what’s the NFL’s excuse
for using Ani DiFranco’s “32 Flavors” (and her excuse for letting
them)? Eminem’s “My Name Is” was also part of the campaign until
someone actually listened to the original lyrics.
Iggy Pop, “Lust For Life”
For Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
The NFL’s marketing department isn’t the first to overlook smack-
friendly lyrics in search of a good beat. The commercials feature
families playing on the beach and conveniently edit out any
mention of “liquor and drugs,” “flesh machines” and “stripteases.”
Led Zeppelin, “Rock and Roll”
For Cadillac
This is a song, however upbeat, about dudes not getting any action.
Aren’t car commercials supposed to make men think a new set
of wheels is their ticket to Babesville? Either way, Bonzo must be
rolling in his grave.
EMF, “Unbelievable”
For Kraft Crumbles
The hit 1991 song was reworked in 2005 to sell cheese, resulting in
the new lyric, “crumbelievable,”and Stephen Colbert’s stamp of
approval: “Folks, that’s not just a commercial for cheese that hits
the spot when shredded cheese is just too shredded and a block of
cheese is just too blocky; it’s also a perfect metaphor for the state of
our popular culture – crumbled into little pieces.” - E.T.