Yahoo! Taps 'Home Sweet Home' for New Ad
Allyson B. Crawford
5 Comments
Add some more cash to the Motley Crue bankroll. Yahoo! is using "Home Sweet Home" in a new ad campaign! The commercial is airing on television now, which is good for the Crue...I think. I say "I think" because over half the YouTube comments are asking "Who is this band?"
Seriously.
Anyway, any Glam exposure on the national circuit is good. The commercial itself isn't great -- although I like the part with the band and the jumping bull in front of a moving stock ticker. Plus, it sort of sucks that "Home Sweet Home" is so edited, but hey. You take what you can get, right? Check it out below.
Reader Comments (5)
Besides, there are far worse things than hearing a bit of Home Sweet Home while channel surfing on the couch.
About the Yahoo spot:
Kinda funny. Coulda been a lot more funny!
Conceptually, the commercial is just okay. There's not a strong link to using this song and the point Yahoo wants to make.
The creative team took their collective eye off the ball when they didn't make sure the band was more 80's in look, even if it would be just a parody approximation a la Steel Panther.
Instead, they mock the genre one step too far by bastardizing the stand-in band's appearance, which does not add credibility to the message.
It's funny you see a guy playing piano with his arms on fire. It's funny that you see the main character in the commercial singing with Vince Neil's voice and hopping on stage with the band, hitting one power chord on the guitar and then chucking the guitar off to the guitarist.
But it's not that funny when the director, with the ad agency creative director and art director signing off, has the stylist make some weird euro-looking Cirque de Soliel "Glam Metal" band. They would have far better results with the look of an 80's Hair Metal act transported in a time machine right from the stage of the Roxy.
This could have been great but instead, it's an "almost".
p.s. I've got nothing against "Euro Look" or "Cirque de Soleil". In fact, I love stuff (vids, movies, commercials) that's got that European "classy" flava, and this commercial has a lot of that. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the director is from Europe and that it was even filmed over there (Save money with more style and more money to pay for the song sung by Motley Crue), but missed their cue on the band's look, for sure! Another clever touch, tho -- listen closely to the outro and the way they got the singer to dovetail his last syllables into singing "Yahoo" as the logo fades up at the end of the spot. Sly and clever, indeed.
Addendum: John Cusack's dad, a former successful Chicago ad man once told my friend, Mac, "Mac, advertising is nothing more than a monument to triviality." Case in point is whatever this commercial is supposed to be about.
This often happens in Britain when a commercial with a terrific song, well known or not, airs a lot on Channel 4 and/or BBC.
An example would be The Hollies, "He Ain't Heavy", a #1 hit in the early 70's, when it was the music track for a commercial that aired extensively in the U.K. in the mid 1980's and catapulted the song into a Top 10 hit all over again.
It's great people are either getting turned onto "Home Sweet Home" all over again, or, better yet, if kidz are buying it for the first time.
p.s. Anyone ever seen the clip of Motley Crue doing "Home Sweet Home" live just a few years ago on that concert for Katrina that aired on one of the networks. It was produced by Desmond Child and even showed a cutaway of him in the wings.
They even had a small string section accompany them. I saw it with my own two eyes when it aired live but I cannot for the life of me, find it on YouTube, which is just plain crazy.
I've seen the version on YouTube with the same performance but only with shots of the people and kids struggling through the immediate aftermath of the storm. It's very moving, but you should see the one with the band and the strings. It is so powerful, beautiful and moving.
And I know because I am in the ad.