Budweiser – Band plays Popcorn
9 May 2008 by SilkyRight, I should say from the off, even before you start typing:
“It’s hardly the worst advert on TV, is it Silky you shithead?”
I’m being more pedantically critical of this advert than I would be off, let’s say, The Gadget Helpline advert.
And I’m allowed to as well.
Not only because I’m the one mashing the keyboard with my fists eawmfwldkrewal, kdsaq d,kfr[rsu,erxc but because this advert is in a different league to, let’s say, Moonpig, in terms of production quality. I’d even go as far as saying someone actually thought about what was going to be in it before they started filming it.
I like to think of it as the difference between criticising a West End play and a primary school Nativity play. One is performed by attention seeking egomaniacs and the other is a West End play etc.
Anyways, where was I?
Ah, yes this Budweiser advert:
I really, really want to like this advert. I think it’s got a great (Warning: hippyish meaningless bollocks about to be typed) *feel* about it. I think it’s filmed nicely and that Colonel Parker/Sanders fella sure does talk funny in it.
But, but, but… I really, really hate the use of a modern band covering a “love to hate it” track as the way they depict dedication.
This probably stems from my hatred of bands that appear on Radio 1′s Live Lounge and *ironically* cover old tracks through a sneer. Bands that have names that mean less than nothing (read: that I just don’t get) like Vampire Weekend, Conjunctivitis Photocopier and Erectile Disco Function.
Bands that introduce the track with an underplayed and thoroughly unenthusiastic: “Here’s one that you might recognise.”.
Yeah, you’re damned right I’ll recognise it because it’s catchier, better written and has sold more copies then anything you’ll ever do, you self-satisfied, contemptuous cunt.
So maybe this advert is quite so scornful of the song it covers but it’s still trading on the hilarious irony of using Popcorn.
It’s been done before and it wasn’t funny then and it’s not funny now.
No, surely they could have thought of a funnier, more original way to depict dedication.
You know, like maybe if they rehearsed loads for a gig at a theme park only to find out that a puppet show was above them on the play list. Now that’s funny and surely no-one’s thought of it before?
OK, as I’ve admitted before, it’s easier to slag something off than it is to create something, but I just don’t find this idea in the slightest but amusing.
I told you it was pedantically critical…
Just How Bad is this Ad?
(19 votes, average: 2.32 out of 5)
12Responses:
Jonny Chestwig
Said on the 9 May 2008
Take another sip from the vat marked ‘curmudgeonry’, it tastes so good!
Matthais
Said on the 9 May 2008
I do get what you mean (can’t say I’m at all familiar with the track their covering if that isn’t admitting total ignorance.) Budweiser at least tend to show a little bit of adventure with their advertising compared to your Strongbows (that’s not “first pint refreshment”, that’s just the blokes letting out all the gas which Bulmers force in to the poor over-carbonated, sickly sweet concoctution which pushes actual ciders off the pumps.) I seem to remember the frog/toad adverts being good but then I was in my mid teens at the time.
I guess we should be grateful least it doesn’t even feature a whisper of a “Wassup”; no doubt they’ll inflict that on us again in a decades time…
\
Anyway, discovered this blog thanks to the b3ta.com newsletter and have laughed harder than for quite a while, particularly at the “Glade” post – any chance of an option to subscribe via e-mail? My attempts to erase the moonpig jingle from my mind have unfortunately left me unable to remember the important things like checking back here!
still annoyed
Said on the 9 May 2008
Hate it Hate it. Can i also nominate the singing worm
theaardvark
Said on the 10 May 2008
I quite like it. But then, I’ve always quite liked Popcorn as a track. Simple. Catchy. And light-hearted.
Keith
Said on the 10 May 2008
Funny, I hate this ad almost as much as “we believe that beer should be fresh” the admens belief which is in strict contrast to the word lager which means store.
Gina
Said on the 13 May 2008
They’re playing the drums with beer bottles … how could anyone not love this?
And I love Vampire Weekend. So there.
Silky
Said on the 17 May 2008
Playing the drums with beer bottles is a health and safety nightmare, Gina. You’re asking for trouble if you do it, I tell you, asking for trouble….
What does the name Vampire Weekend actually mean?
Cathryn
Said on the 12 August 2008
i like Budweiser, and i like this advert, enough said
rik o shea
Said on the 17 June 2009
its not beer its pish
rik o shea
Said on the 18 June 2009
come to think of it pish contains more alcohol .
rik o shea
Said on the 18 June 2009
cathryn , first you dont know how to spell your own name , second go and live in america where they also drink this pisswater .
rik o shea
Said on the 1 July 2009
just for the record, cathryn ,its spelt C. A. T. H. E. R. I. N. E. not that bullshit american version.