Monday 31 March 2008

Inappropriate uses of music in advertising (pt.1)

Compare and contrast:

First Choice Holidays advert (currently showing on UK television)


Serge Gainsbourg et Charlotte Gainsbourg – Lemon Incest


You can imagine the F*rst Ch**c* project brief was to come up with a poignant, yet heart-warming image of family holidays (with none of the usual trappings: arguments, tantrums, sunburn, fry-ups, etc). And the music? A stark and lilting piano version of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Lemon Incest’.

Look! There he is cavorting on black satin sheets with his scantily clad 12-year-old daughter Charlotte, and they’re singing an ode to forbidden love, and keeping it in the family...

Look again at the slightly sinister expression on the family guy’s face, and the tag-line “We understand family holidays”...

Here’s another stark and beautiful rendition of Lemon Incest, this time in English (for those of you not fluent in French). It’s by that Bad Seed Mick Harvey, from his album ‘Intoxicated Man’ (Songs of Serge Gainsbourg sung in English by Mick Harvey & Anita Lane) on Mute Records.

Mick Harvey – Lemon Incest

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