My Baby Drove Up in a Brand New Cadillac

It used to be that I was totally opposed to the use of rock and roll songs, especially punk rock/new wave/"my music," in commercials, but as I realized that the artists used this as one way to make money, money they often (in my opinion) deserved but never made, I lost my offense, but never fully my surprise.

One of my big shocks, as it were, was when Jaguar used "London Calling" by the Clash in a television commercial; yes, I know it was used before that and I was not surprised when it was used in several ways for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. My last blog post was about Sonos using the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" in a recent advertisement.

So I am not certain why I was at first surprised when I saw a Cadillac commercial using, among other things, part of the Ramones "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio" as it referred to the band and allegedly Cadillac itself having started in the garage; few similarities between the ur-American punk band and a luxury vehicle maker occur to me. We all remember Budweiser using "Blitzkrieg Bop" in a series of advertisements (and they may still do so), and it has been used elsewhere.

So I guess I am glad that the Ramones, the Clash, the Dead Boys and other bands get some recognition and money, and I hope this causes some people to either revisit their music or listen to it closely for the first time (my wife Val is very unhappy hearing "Hungry Like the Wolf" by one of her favorite bands, Duran Duran, in a yogurt commercial). But it still seems weird to hear my adolescence, early adulthood and sense of uniqueness being sold and selling things.