There is currently an advert on Australian television for the German Insurance company and DAX component, Allianz.
Now presumably the ad agency which made this and Allianz themselves, wanted to go for some kind of Gen X/Y nostalgia thing because the song "I'm With You" by Avril Lavigne was released 23 years ago; which means that this is peak retro.
However, yet again we have both an advert which didn't think things through and a song which doesn't mean what the advertisers think it does.
The verse which immediately precedes the chorus and which is not contained within the advert, has the following lyrics:
"I'm standing on a bridge
I'm waitin' in the dark
I thought that you'd be here by now
There's nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I'm listening but there's no sound"
Admittedly this is pretty open to interpretation, which is what you would expect from a pop punk song. The explanation from the author herself, doesn't really add very much either.
the song's chorus, sounding like a girl looking to escape the everyday any way she can.
"It's a song I wrote at the piano when I was kind of having a depressing day," she said. "Kind of like, where's my guy? One of those days."
- MTV, 29th Oct 2002
So what are we to make of the use of this song in this advert? Of the two characters in the advertisement, one is a small robin-type bird who is in danger of losing her egg; while the other is the white German eagle which is the embodiment of the Allianz logo in use since 1890.
If the song is being put into the mouth of the robin, then the line "I don't know who you are but I'm, I'm with you", can be interpreted that any insurance company is as good as any other when you are in trouble; thus undoing the whole point of the advertisement.
On the other hand, the song doesn't actually fit into the mouth of the eagle, since the eagle is the one doing the saving here.
What's worse is that the White-tailed Eagle which the national bird of Germany is a highly efficient bird of prey.
Fish are the primary food source for the White-tailed Eagle but it has to be said that as opportunistic killing machines, they wiy eat whatever is available in their environment.
Remember, to the eagle, a robin is a smaller, more vulnerable prey item that can be caught by an eagle's dive and talons. Eagles can and do eat robins, other birds, small mammals, and fish.
This is a case of very unfortunate story telling going awry. If this was a real life situation, then that eagle would absolutely eat the robin's egg as a tasty snack; maybe before turning it's attention to scoffing the robin itself.
Is this an unfortunate allegory for Allianz itself? A quick look at the Allianz website reveals...
Oh.
Oh?
Oh no.
There's quite a bit of unpleasantness between 1933 and 1945, which a company represented by a predatory bird which eats smaller birds, is kind of obligated to admit. Admittedly that has nothing to do with a one minute TV advertisement 80 years later but I still wish that companies would think about what kind of storytelling is inadvertently told when they spork popular music for corporate propaganda purposes.
Aside:
I am again reminded of IGA Supermarkets' campaign with Anh Do:
My head is a box filled with nothing,
and that's the way I like it.
My garden's a secret compartment,
and that's the way I like it.
...
So please,
Baby please,
Open your heart;
Catch my disease.
You want that song if you're trying to sell fresh food? Okay...
No comments:
Post a Comment