First we quote the immortal words of our national poet, Lou Reed:
Candy came from out on the Island
In the backroom she was everybody’s darlin’
But she never lost her head
Even when she was browsing the Internet on a WebOS-powered Touchpad tablet.
Oh, that’s not how it went? Sorry. After HP completely subsumed the riff of one of music’s seminal songs of change and rebellion in order to sell uninventive electronics – and given that they didn’t get this song for free and that Lou Reed deigned to sell it to them – in my rage I seem to have forgotten the real words.
Apparently this commercial aired during the Grammys, which is fortunate because I didn’t have to watch it live. However, I have no idea how this mismatch of music, image, and voice could have been more offensive to anyone with a remote interest in classic rock.
This is akin to when William Burroughs appeared in a Nike commercial but even then it was kind of funny to see that cadaverous old man say “The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body.”
Personally, I think they should do the William Tell routine with the tone-deaf morons who made this commercial.