Updated: I've now seen the Dan Zanes/Wal-Mart/Coke ad -- comments below...
So, Bill noted yesterday that he'd heard about a Wal-Mart ad featuring none other than Dan Zanes' "Hello, Hello." Yes, that Dan Zanes, who I think the world of and just a couple years (before the bottom fell out of the real estate market) was fighting the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn.
I haven't seen the ad (it purportedly features both Wal-Mart and Coke -- how's that for combining congolmerates), but I can understand why it would give folks pause. Without seeing the ad, there's no way of knowing in what context it's used, but certainly Dan Zanes has been very pro-community and Wal-Mart -- well, let's just say the jury is clearly not resolved on Wal-Mart's benefit to the community.
The only piece of information I can add is that according to this post, Zanes has lent a song of his for use by Wal-Mart in their stores over a year ago (at least as early as February 2008), albeit "Smile Smile Smile." Is there a difference between that and a TV ad? Probably just depends on what the ad says.
As for Zanes himself, he's never been shy about affiliating himself with bigger corporations to get his message across -- his latest DVD, the one with a number of songs from his all-Spanish album, is being distributed by Razor & Tie. Oh, and there's the Disney music show pilot. And plenty of other stuff. And Zanes seems more acutely aware of his image amongst his fans than almost any other kids' artist. I've got to believe he thought through the implications of his choice a fair bit.
But it still doesn't mean there won't be some questions...
Update: As we watch TV rarely, and commercial TV even more rarely, I didn't expect to actually see the ad in question, but today I did, albeit in a most surprising place -- at the movie theatre. In the series of ads/promos/wastes of time they now show before the movie previews was none other than the ad. It is a very Dan Zanes-ian ad, albeit one that posits Coke and (to a lesser extent) Wal-Mart as the solution needed for community. One kid (or maybe it's multiple folks) deliver Cokes (from a Wal-Mart bag) to neighbors, placed on top of napkins with the name of a park and "3:30" written on it. Sure enough, everybody shows up at the park at the appointed time, puts their napkins on the ground, at which point it turns into a picnic blanket. Yeah, it got a little weird there at the end. Zanes makes no appearance...
I couldn't tell if the song was the version off of Rocket Ship Beach, off his Hello Hello book/CD combo, or something else. Not that it really matters, but since it was really just about 29 seconds of music (pretty much from the start of the song), it probably wouldn't have made much difference
So anyway, in its celebration of community, the ad was definitely Zanes-ian, as I said. It probably doesn't alleviate much of the initial cognitive dissonance noted here and elsewhere by Zanes' participation, but it doesn't make it worse, either -- it's not like DZ was strolling through the aisles of Wal-Mart drinking Coke a la Mean Joe Greene.
And that's probably all I'm gonna say 'bout this...
