According to an article on Wired by Eliot Van Buskirk, companies are paying artists to sing about certain brands in their music. A e-mail from Paul Kluger of the Kluger Agency, which performs such product placements, was mistakenly sent to Jeff Crouse of the Anti-Advertising Agency and Double Happiness Jeans, and provided a glimpse into how song lyric product placement really happens.
"I'm writing because we feel you may be a good company to participate in a brand integration campaign within the actual lyrics of one of the worlds most famous recording artists upcoming song/album," begins the opening e-mail in the eventual salvo between the two.
The email went on to say that for the right price Double Happiness Jeans would be mentioned in an upcoming Pussycat Dolls song. This makes me think of every song that mentions a brand in it and makes me curious if they paid for that free advertisement... the Black Eyed Peas mentioning "Seven Jeans, True Religions," and countless more. Crouse posted the email onto his blog and is refusing to take it down so of course attorneys are now involved.
I though Van Buskirk ended the article perfectly saying, "I appreciate that artists need to embrace a variety of revenue opportunities to make it today, but selling song lyrics seems to go over the line -- assuming there's still such a thing as selling out."
Check out the article at http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/products-placed.html and think twice when you hear your fav new brand mentioned in the hottest new Top40 song.
- Jessica I.
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