WATCH: Weird ways Diet Pepsi, Nike, AARP used punk rock in ads - Fortune
The British band shared stages with the Clash and the Sex Pistols during punk rock’s heyday, and even had the distinction of seeing their songs banned by BBC radio. In 2007, AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, used one of their songs in a commercial. The song was “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” and the commercial depicted energetic people of various ages at a birthday party, with a tag line that read, “An organization for people who have birthdays. ” Since it opened up its membership to anyone over 50, retired or not, the song may have been used as a gambit to disabuse people of the notion that it’s an organization for mildewed pensioners. Dunlop Tyres (“Venus In Furs” – The Velvet Underground). But Dunlop Tyres, a British subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, decided to use the S&M anthem “Venus in Furs” instead for a 1993 spot. “Dunlop attempted to change that with a visual tour de force aimed at fixing its name firmly in drivers’ minds… Set to the Velvet Underground’s Venus in Furs, the ad had a nightmarish quality and was one of the most original and controversial... The Clash’s 1979 recording of “Pressure Drop” found its way into a commercial for the 2008 Nissan Rogue, presumably because it’s the most punk rock mid-size crossover SUV in automotive history. Source: fortune.com
