The Microsoft/Gang Of Four connection...

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The Microsoft/Gang Of Four connection... - 12/27/2010 3:40:21 PM

hertz

Posts: 1315
Joined: 8/7/2010
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Here's the advert, as it is seen in the UK...

Xbox Kinect Sport

Here's the full track...

Natural's Not In It - Gang Of Four

And the lyrics...

quote:

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life
This heaven gives me migraine
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure

Coercion of the senses
We are not so gullible
Our great expectations
A future for the good
Fornication makes you happy
No escape from society
Natural is not in it
Your relations are of power
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attached

Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell out maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine

I can't decide what is happening with this. 'Natural's not in it' is an anti-commercial anti-consumerist anthem from the 1970s, created by one of the most obviously political bands of the era. What's it doing in a TV commercial? Especially one for a product which seems so perfectly to be exactly the sort of consumerist nightmare the song was originally intended to take a pop at?

Did Microsoft think no-one would notice, or care? Or did they just not know what their ad agency was doing? Or have Gang of Four sold out? I don't suppose it matters all that much, but I found it interesting.

Anyhoo, it got me thinking - are there any other adverts out there with music which, on closer examination, doesn't really fit?

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RE: The Microsoft/Gang Of Four connection... - 12/27/2010 5:21:00 PM

DesFIP

Posts: 25191
Joined: 11/25/2007
From: Apple County NY
Status: offline

They're selling a leisure time product and purchased the rights to use a song that talks about what to do for leisure. And considering nobody's heard of the band for years. they were probably grateful as hell to get any money for something people barely remember.

After all, if they really were as anticonsumerist as you imagine, they wouldn't have sold the albums for a profit, or demanded radio royalties, etc. You're being very naive.

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(in reply to hertz)

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