For the next couple of posts, I'm going to concentrate on providing you with some pointed examples of the use of Beatles music in television advertising. These various ads express different conceptions of the Beatles. In some ads, for example, the Beatles are invokes as purveyors of revolution while in others, the band is used to privilege a message of togetherness and peace and, in others, they are used to instill nostalgia in aging consumers. Of course, it goes without saying that these conceptions can and do overlap in several of these ads.
The first one I'd like to show you is the first, and perhaps the most famous, example of Beatles music being used in a television commercial.
In 1987, two years after Michael Jackson purchased the Beatles' catalog, Nike released an advertisement that "Revolution" as its soundtrack. It is important to note that, at this point in time, Beatles music still had the capacity to carry political messages. While, today, most ads that make use of Beatles music tend to privilege the Beatles' message of love and togetherness, this particular Nike advertisement does not.
Nike, in using "Revolution", claims that its product would somehow allow its consumers to engage in rebellion. Indeed, the people being hailed in this advertisement is a dominant middle class made up of the baby boomers that, at the time, were approaching their late 30s and early 40s. The advertisement suggests, then, that buying a pair of Nike sneakers is somehow consistent with the ideals of their 1960s countercultural youth.
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