The just-released ad for the Video Music Awards placed after the jump, featuring Cobra Starship and Gossip Girl starlet Leighton Meester, will apparently be the “first of many West Side Story-inspired VMA promos,” according to the clip’s caption. Is it super-condescending to ask how many members of the MTV target demo have even heard of the Laurents/Bernstein/Sondheim musical about inter-gang and racial tensions? Probably. But that doesn’t make the decision to theme this year’s Video Music Awards after a 52-year-old musical any less strange. Perhaps there will be a Very Special Episode of Parental Control in order to bridge the generational gap.
I am already terrified by the prospect of an ad featuring a Britney Spears striptease inspired by “America.” Make it not happen, please!
(And yes, you are seeing a pre-roll ad before an ad. It’s like Russian dolls!)
VMA Side Story: Cobra Starship and Leighton Meester [MTV]
OMG, they totally filmed that at the Transit Museum at Jay Street.
With musicals, it doesn’t matter how long ago it was written. It’s age is determined by when it was last performed by a local high school.
I can’t wait to see Drake’s take on Officer Krupke.
IMPORTANT ADDENDUM:
“Taylor Swift is joining Cobra Starship, Katy Perry, Russell Brand and Ne-Yo for a special version of the classic “West Side Story” tune “Tonight,” for a promo of the 2009 Video Music Awards’ return to the Big Apple.”
Heh, I was amused by how they called themselves “the latest craze”. Way to stroke your own egos, Cobra Starship!