Versions

Today's mail bought a good bundle of records (yeah, vinyl -I'm still analogue in that respect) from my favourite record shop Fat City. A few of the tracks were cover versions or remixes: a dub-reggae cover of The Rolling Stones 'Miss You'; a reworked version of James Brown's 'The Big Payback' with fresh female vocals; Dre & Snoop's 'The Next Episode' over a smoked-out skanking rhythm. But the pick of the litter is the the oh-so-limited-edition 10" of this stone cold killer from Mark Ronson:

Respect to any man who can make The Smiths funky.

Now, cover versions, sampling and mash-ups are nothing new in the musical arena, but what about when it happens in advertising?

Like this one :

Which seems awfully like a cover version of this one:

So it seems that VW are now 'covering' old Audi ads -kinda reminds me of the old saying that imitation is the sincerest form of saying that you don't have an original thought in your body.

Now, let's not confuse cheap pilfering with the oh-so-post-modern homage approach, which is a different beastie entirely: (see also 118 118)

Nice. (And, weirdly, the song was a cover version to begin with).

Hey, wait a minute -Sony 'Balls' was 'inspired' by a piece on Letterman... but as Scamp pointed out last year, there's really nothing wrong with ads co-opting bits of pop-culture (we did a lovely ad for a juice brand that shamelessly ripped off a Badly Drawn Boy clip).

But creatives who blatantly steal ideas from other ads really don't deserve to be called creatives.

PS Here's another kicking cover from Mr Ronson -one of my favourite tracks from last year.

Comments

[Neil Perkin]

There's also a Woolwich ad on telly at the moment (using the idea of a guy embarassing himself by leaving a message on his answer phone which is overheard by his parents-in-law) which is remarkably like an idea used by McDonalds using the same scenario but with a baby monitor. What's going on?