To get angry about crass commercialism when it comes to Star Wars is foolish – it’s always been about crass commercialism. George Lucas’ stroke of genius wasn’t the script or direction of that first movie, it was securing the licensing rights from Fox. From day one Star Wars has been all about moving product.
But lately it feels like Star Wars is now about nothing but moving product. The latest example: a new Adidas ad that puts people like Snoop Dogg and David Beckham into the Mos Eisley cantina as a way of selling sneakers and promote the World Cup. It’s kind of gross on every possible level; I’d sort of be okay with it if Snoop Dogg was digitally inserted into the scene as a celebration of Star Wars itself, but this is just a commercial. And I don’t even know what the connection that the Cantina really has to the World Cup or to Adidas. It just feels like a chance to shoe horn a bunch of people into a really familiar setting.
We’ve come to just roll over and accept the best of our culture being prostituted out for commercials – I remember back when it was a travesty to have a cool rock song in a commercial and today it’s a valid marketing tool for up and coming bands – but where does it stop? I feel like everybody kind of stood up and said ‘Fuck you’ when that vacuum commercial resurrected Fred Astaire for some crass bullshit, and I kind of wish we’d do the same here.
Oh, and the ‘Originality’ tag on this commercial… has irony truly up and died?
41 comments
Two articles on this? Looks like somebody is getting promoted at Adidas.
David has posted this also. I think I shared his utter confusion rather than your immediate reaction of anger. Lucas whored it all away long ago (for all Avatar's BO success, it was still horribly dwarfed by just the burger outlet tie-ins with TPM). I get the world cup "cultural melting pot" thing. I'm more interested in the source footage though. Looks too clean for the Laserdisc-DVD and too lacking in shitty CGI aliens to be the SE.
I don't even understand what the hell that was supposed to be. At least they spent way too much time on it. Pathetic.
You what, I thought that was pretty seamless…and you have Snoop Dog with a lightsaber…come on you all enjoyed it.
Devin, I realize that Uncle George touched your childhood in the bad place, but to suggest that his securing the licensing rights to Star Wars was more "genius" than the script or direction of the movie itself smacks of curmudgeonly internet revisionism, which is ironic considering your distaste for George's revisionism. On an unrelated note, Snoop Dogg with a lightsaber is dumb.
I'm going out to buy some whatever they were selling right now.
It was pretty seamless and could have been kind of cool if it wasn't a commercial. And if it made any kind of sense or had a point. I'm also quite confused by it. It certainly doesn't make me want to buy addidas or watch the world cup, I can tell you that.
Beckham would kneel before Greedo.. that p*ssy
"And I don't even know what the connection that the Cantina really has to the World Cup or to Adidas. It just feels like a chance to shoe horn a bunch of people into a really familiar setting."
Umm, A few weeks ago, Adidas debuted a boat-load of Star Wars themed merch. So the commercial is relevant.
I kind of still enjoyed it. It was all over the place, nothing really had a point, and the direction was painfully camp; but it was still fucking fun. It didn't need to make sense…I absolutely love StarWars (which is why I bought the shit from adidas haha!), but it isn't Citizen Kane or something.
was that Daft Punk??
I kinda dug the fact that Paul Weller and Noel Gallager were just chillin and pointing at stuff
Oh come on. You know you LOVED the Greedo scene.
Irony was murdered, then raped, then cockpunched, then raped a long, long time ago.
I thought it was pretty neat, actually, considering Star Wars hasn't whored itself out nearly as much as it could've in the past.
The moment you mentioned soccer was the moment I stopped the ad.
The difference between this and Fred Astaire, Devin, is that "moichindising" has always been a part of his vision for this franchise. Fred Astaire, on the other hand, never actually personally endorsed that damn vaccuum.
I don't see the problem. Wasn't Darth Vader selling Energizer batteries a decade ago? And Threepio selling cheap sugary cereal and hanging with the Muppets a decade before that?
Well, then it's a good thing Star Wars stopped mattering about 10 years ago.
Good point Law Jedi. Darth Vader VS Energizer Bunny. It's not changed.
Questioning the logic of this ad is nothing short of moronic. If you've sat through a single commercial in the past decade, you know that ''narrative logic'' and ''context'' are alien concepts when selling a product. The aim here was obviously to produce an internet-friendly attention-grabber. Job well done. ADIDAS turned Devin into their curmudgeonly shill.
i kinda liked it
Star Wars is the KISS of movies.
i kinda liked it too, btw #12 thats Ian Brown with Noel Gallagher,
oh and [A] Beckham is god (just not the best actor)
Jay Baruchel shot first?
@12,
i rekon thats ian brown, not d mod father ,
i liked the ad, but who ever thinks star wars is still cool, hasent seen the 3 terrible prequels,the crap clone wars cartoon and the 70 or so awful vdeo games released over the last 10 years.
heres hoping tron is the start of something good,
Shorter Devin: "To get angry about crass commercialism when it comes to Star Wars is foolish–but I'm going to do it anyway!"
At least this was kind of fun and well done.
Snoop with lightsaber!!!
I enjoyed it. Yeah, what a shame that Lucas dares to make as much money as people will pay him for his movies … he should go make movies that seventeen people (all critics, like on this site) watch and care about instead. Where is his artistic integrity?
Well at least the CG looks better than the special editions
The point is being missed here – Adidas has had a bunch of commercials promoting originality by profiling unique and groundbreaking people in many areas. This is just a celebration of the original Star Wars – definitely unique and groundbreaking in its time.
First, I would guess that they appoached Lucas for permission. They probably said Star Wars is iconic and we would like to use it for out add…blah, blah, blah," and here's a boat load of cash. Lucas took it. And anyone else here who says they wouldn't is a damn liar. The prequels did not live up to the original. I get it. The original were great and the prequels were not actually Revenge of the Sith was good but could have been better with changes in the way in which the dialogue was delivered. But I sense a new fad. Critics and hipsters alike bashing everything–old and new–that Lucas ever made because it's the hip thing to do. Then blaming it on capitalism.
it was funny! loved snoop and the way greedo got shot.
We're down to Snoop-Puppy-Poop pimping sneakers with Darth and a lightsaber. Proof that not only Star Wars is dead, but it's putrefying carcass dug out of the ground and impaled on a stick for Holloween night.
First of all…what the hell was that.
Second, just NOW it's official that Star Wars is nothing but a way to sell crap? Welcome to the last 30 years! Glad you finally caught up.
Just awful. Horribly paced, added TV's looked bad, and 99% of the viewing (American) public wouldn't recognize any of the additions other than Snoop Dog. Kinda neat to have Daft Punk in it, but the ad derailed and plummeted off a cliff after the first 5 seconds.
I have a big, huge Jedi boner right now.
This is to promote the starwars-adidas line more than anything else. i thought it was cool.
Devin, you angry, bitter idiot: do some fucking research before you spew your garbage. You might not like what they did, but at least, you'll know WHY they did it.
To quote you "And I don't even know what the connection that the Cantina really has to the World Cup or to Adidas".
Idiot.
Promoting there Star Wars/Adidas Originals line. You hadn't seen the original ad (which I like a lot more): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w0BBBVCQTk
Its ridiculous and cheap. And it wasn't even witty, or sensible.
No, Star Wars is also a scapegoat for aging Gen-Xers with rose-coloured memories of their childhood.
I think this is a great promo! It’s really well done and has a lot of attention to detail.
Boogie Studio remixed all of the original Star Wars cantina sound effects and character dialogue with the new ones from the celebrities and other characters.
It’s a fun campaign and a great way to kick off FIFA 2010.
For more information and to see the full-length version of The Star Wars Cantina 2010 promo as well as learn to more about some of the other projects that Boogie has remixed the sound for, Please check out the blog below and feel free to comment.
Cheers!
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