A few days ago, Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s much anticipated “Telephone” video was released on Vevo, a video hosting site a site dedicated to featuring music videos from 3 major music labels without the hassles of copyright infringement. Seems that music companies are getting much smarter in terms of distribution and cashing in on social media networks.
The video is weird and I don’t understand what all-female jails and mass homicide have to do with not wanting to answer your phone in a club, but such is the creative inner workings of Lady Gaga. The script for the video is supposed to be written by Gaga herself, who likes to take a lot of creative control over her music and image (which is good). She said in an interview with AngryApe that she wanted to make the video “high art” and “take a decidedly pop song, which on the surface has a quite shallow meaning, and turn it into something deeper.”
What she ended up getting was a 10 minute commercial from a song that is only 3 minutes and 40 seconds long.
Her tame looking sunglasses in the fight scene are Chanel. The aluminum cans in her hair are Diet Coke. The phone she grabs as she rubs the crotch of her ambiguously gendered jail mate is Virgin Mobile. The female cop surfs for a date on PlentyofFish.com. Lady Gaga makes sandwiches from Wonderbread and Miracle Whip (Every healthy mom’s nightmare, how badass). For some reason a random Polaroid photo booth is featured as well. Beyonce and Gaga drive, and rub all over, the “Pussy Wagon” SS Silverado (from the Kill Bill movie). Apparently “Pussy Wagon” key chains are also available on the web (featured in the video as well).
This need to advertise to produce such expensive music videos overrides the artistic capabilities of writers. Not only do they need to create opportunities in the videos to feature brands, when they pitch such music videos they must prove how a video will help sell these products, either through product placements or merchandising. With a video called “Telephone” I’m sure many phone companies were clamoring with their chequebooks to be the one Lady Gaga and Beyonce would use.
From the giant media conglomerate that owns Gaga’s record label, down to YouTube, no one truly cares about quality or artistry when it comes to music (and films, etc). Even Advertising Age suggests that these not so subtle product placements are more noteworthy than Gaga’s partial nudity and girl-on-girl kiss, which I have to agree with. If Gaga wanted people to notice her art, they couldn’t see it through the limited edition laptops and designer labels.
Interestingly enough, if you watch the video on MTV, certain brands do not appear in the video (They are either fuzzed or cut out). Any theories? Make it into a game!
Visit Nerve.com to see their list of top ten blatant product placements in film.
Only a few of the products used in the video were actual paid product placements. At the end of the day most people won’t know this, and will see all of it as advertising. While I cannot say for sure whether or not Lady Gaga is trying to comment on consumerism (you never know with Gaga), her artistic endevours may have been better served using different methods. Product placement is so prevalent and so obvious in music videos today that her use doesn’t show anything different. If she is trying to make a statement, it seems to get lost within all of the familar brands.
I heard that rumor too! Why on earth would someone choose to have so much blatant product placement without getting paid?…In my advertising class, advertisers argue that life without products would be stranger than if it was gneeric brands being shown, which I somewhat tend to believe IF the brand images weren’t facing straight on the camera or being lifted up to people’s faces. That’s doesn’t happen in real life generally.
I like your theory of a comment on consumerism, as Gaga is a huge Warhol fan. But I have yet to reason out what that is…
As soon as I read your blog title and saw the YouTube video was Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s new song.. I knew exactly what you were talking about. The first thing I noticed when I watched the longgg music video premiere was the Virgin Mobile ads! It’s so interesting that commstudiesstudent pointed out these may not even be paid advertisements? That is so strange, because it definitely took away from the video – at least for me. While I did enjoy the creativity, the product placement was so outright, it wasn’t even clever. Maybe next time Gaga will step up her game.
Did this advertising agency copy Independent songwriter’s video for AT&T spot?
http://newmusiclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/did-this-advertising-agency-copy-independent-songwriters-video-for-att-commercial/
you make the call!??