It’s a rendition of “I Did it my Way” except… It’s awful. It’s like a tone deaf drunk is singing it, if “singing” is even the right word. Is it supposed to be horrible or do I just not understand this type of music? Why would they use this to try to sell a car?
The singer, Sid Vicious, did it his way.
In case this leads to a deconstruction of Sid Vicious, I’m moving it to Cafe Society. From MPSIMS.
I wondered exactly the same thing. Who the hell are the trying to sell cars to? Cadillac used similar obnoxious music, I think in the 80s and I wondered the same thing.
Sid Vicious. He actually recorded and sold this? I get it. He did it his way. But, in this case, his way sucked.
It’s the Led Zeppelin Cadillac commercial I was trying to think of. Seems completely out of touch with Cadillac image.
[quote=“jtur88, post:6, topic:697285”]
It’s the Led Zeppelin Cadillac commercial I was trying to think of. Seems completely out of touch with Cadillac image.
[/QUOTE] But that's good music. Really good. Obviously it's a matter of taste, and not everyone likes Zeppelin, but I don't think Vicious even intended this recording to be good. Does anyone actually consider that to be good music? (Not a rhetorical question.)Well, sure, Sid (and the Pistols) were supposed to be terrible. That was the point.
Still it is tough to see how the punkest of punk rock is supposed to help sell a $40K sports sedan from Honda’s upmarket division.
But: back when they dared use London Calling to sell Jaguars there was obviously the hope that most in the US target audiences would be unfamiliar with The Clash and only hear “London” and think British=classy.
So probably this time they are expecting hardly anyone in the US target audience will recognize Sid any more, but instead will think, oh, so this car is an edgy version of a classic (nevermind that the “edgy version” is almost 40 years old, and there is nothing classic about an Acura in this universe).
But will anyone who doesn’t understand Vicious consider it to be edgy? Too me it’s not edgy, just terrible.
Count me in as the minority, but I love that version of the song. Not only is the theme a perfect fit to Vicious’ personae, but he is also able to mock previous singer’s interpretations and give a finger to the standard at the same time. It is great satire.
Absolutely. Me too! Really, I want that version played at my funeral, just as they start lowering the casket. And, I want everyone to sing along: “he did it H. . I . . S way!”
From The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle
The target market for the TLX from what I can find on-line is male, mid 40s, 100k/yr.
I’m the first two and I can say the ad worked on me. I’m old enough to be aware of who Sid Vicious is and who the Sex Pistols were and still think retro punk is edgy.
Feels like a mid- life crisis vehicle i should buy and wear my Black Flag t-shirt when driving.
Quite.
[ Helped by the fact I detest Frank Sinatra’s voice. ]
Funny thing is, I certainly was aware of Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols but, if this is standard fare, then I apparently have never heard any of their music until now.
Well, it must be a great song, or Sinatra wouldn’t have recorded it.
My point on the Zeppelin thing, was that there must be a very small overlap of people who are into that genre of music, and those who would seriously consider buying a new Cadillac. Raising, in both cases, the question “Who are they trying to sell their cars to?”
It’s not a question of whether the song itself is great or not, it’s the rendition. Obviously some people are fans of the Sid Vicious version; I guess that’s the target market.
Not that I’m a Sinatra fan, but his music is so conventional that I’d hardly notice it in an ad. Maybe that’s the whole point in using Vicious; it gets noticed.
I think it’s a pretty awesome version of the song. I’d take that over Sinatra any day.
If you’re going to do a rendition of I Did It My Way then you really need to do it “your way” to make it mean something. The song is about breaking with convention and making it personal and different from others.
Sid Vicious did exactly that with his version.
The Acura TLX message is that they’re “different” from their competitors and did it “their way” and if you want something different and edgy take a look at their car.
If this is true or not I have no idea as the car looks very typical to what it competes with (BMW 335i, Lexus GS350, etc.)
It’s not often us old guys get to look askance at you whipper snappers and shake our heads knowingly.
I wonder if the kids who wrote that ad for Acura got this bit about the Sex Pistols:
…Or maybe they were just hoping nobody would be the wiser.
I’m too old and too middle class and too lazy to be a rebel. But that commercial makes me want to go take the TLX for a test drive so I can run it up a tree and walk away laughing. It’s what Sid would have wanted. 