In an announcement that warms this Southern liberal's heart, Bluegrass scion Ralph Stanley has endorsed Barack Obama for president and has cut a radio ad that's presumably running in Virginia. Stanley isn't exactly a conservative, having endorsed Dems—including John Edwards, whoops!—in the past. But the ad is a nice piece of populism that points out Obama's family-man status:
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Last week we discussed Jerry Seinfeld getting dumped by Microsoft in favor of the high-powered trio of Pharell Williams, Eva Longoria, and Deepak Chopra. It's looking like the folks over Microsoft vetted these candidates less than Sarah Palin. Longoria owns a MacBook and Chopra has blogged approvingly of iPods, but the kicker, I think, is this:
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As a rebuttal of sorts to Friday's item about a Jack White composition being used in an ad for the slightly-better-than-diet-Coke calorie-free soda Coke Zero, the Idolator tips inbox received this statement from his people over the weekend: "Jack White was commissioned by Sony Pictures to write a theme song for the James Bond film Quantum Of Solace, not for Coca Cola. Any other use of the song is based on decisions made by others, not by Jack White. We are disappointed that you first heard the song in a co-promotion for Coke Zero, rather than in its entirety." Which I think translates to "he's getting a lot of flack for selling out, but he made no extra scratch from this bit of placement." [Earlier]
If there's one thing we know about Jack White—besides his penchant for ugly facial hair—it's that he loves money. Lucky for him the Coca-Cola corporation has plenty where that came from, and a massive cross-promotion deal with the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. White composed the music for a new Coke Zero/Quantum commercial, proving his corporate cred once and for all to the notoriously insular and judgmental Madison Avenue scene, which has long accused him of selling in.
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People are surprised by Daddy Yankee's endorsement of John McCain, but really, shouldn't the fact that the reggaeton singer's New York City record-release party was sponsored by rightward-leaning piss substitute Coors Light have been a hint that dude isn't exactly going door to door for [insert lefty cause here]? (And how well-timed is this press blitz around the release of his album, anyway? Some reporters just refuse to admit that they're being played, I tell you.) Next thing you know, people will be shocked, shocked to relearn that Toby Keith is a Demo—sigh. [AFP]
This morning, as I was trying to will myself out of bed, I heard Chris Brown's "Forever," which is currently the No. 3 song in the country and which has a nicely airy constitution for something that you're going to hear intermingled with those last-moments-of-sleep dreams about work. Little did I know that what I was actually listening to was an extended remix of the newest ad for Wrigley's Doublemint Gum, a factoid that the chewing gum's parent company will officially announce tomorrow, when it unveils ad campaigns featuring Brown (for Doublemint), Ne-Yo (for Big Red), and Julianne Hough (for Juicy Fruit). It's all part of an effort to make boring old stick gum relevant in a world of ice-blasting Chiclet knockoffs.
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In what I see as a pretty unsurprising development but the Times Of London sees as something that "contains much symbolic significance," Bob Dylan has endorsed Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. "Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval," he told the Times. "Poverty is demoralizing. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to." [Times Online via RS]
Second Acts In America, 2008 Edition
"Sanjaya will follow in the footsteps of Kevin Federline, Fabio and MC Hammer, who appeared in previous Life Comes at You Fast commercials." [BusinessWire]
If you were a multiplatinum artist and Grammy perennial like Alicia Keys, would you bother appearing in Fresh Takes, a Dove-sponsored "microseries" that runs during episodes of The Hills? Wouldn't roles in upcoming prestige pics with names like The Secret Life Of Bees and Composition In Black And White scratch your thespian itch enough that you can pass on dialogue like "my mom is on Facebook?!" Is that Dove money so sweet that you're cool working with Nick Lachey? Do you really want what's left of him?
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Dr Pepper has switched pitchmen, leaving Internet sensation Tay Zonday behind and contracting Flavor Flav to lay down a track where his voice comes out of a soda can. "Dr Pepper is flavorlicious like me. Just like Dr Pepper, I add more to it," the Public Enemy hypeman told whatever poor intern had to write the press release for Dr Pepper. [Hip Hop Press via Wooohah!]
The Obama campaign can finally relax, because two of the most important musical voices of two distinct generations have officially come out in favor of the '08 prez candidate and gawky dreamboat, and they're committed to spreading the good word to two very crucial voting blocs: "tweens with no vote (and Maura)" and "NPR listeners/Pitchfork readers who already vote Dem unless there's a wacky third party."
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Last week, a story based on an article in the Sunday Times UK and claiming that as part of Fergie's well-documented spokeslady deal with Candie's jeans, she would "write and perform songs about Candie's," made the rounds. But it's not true! Says Fergie: "I don't know where they got it from. I sing about a lot of things in my songs—from cars to Taco Bell—but not because I'm paid to!" Then why did the story catch on so widely and so easily?
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Hiphopgame.com contributor TaMèreEnSlip, a French native, smelled something fishy when he heard about Armand de Brignac, the allegedly high-end champagne endorsed by Jay-Z in his clip for"Show Me What You Got." The company that distributes the gold-bottled bubbly claims that no product placement was involved, but TaMèreEnSlip wasn't convinced—nor was he convinced that the brand had even existed before this year. So he did some digging—including that old standby of Internet sleuthery, checking domain-name registration records:
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