The Van Beckons

If you watch NFL football, then you probably saw the new Honda Odyssey commercial yesterday. The Odyssey is a seemingly un-metal mini-van (shudder) but the ad concept is smart: a family man, checking out a hot looking van, while Judas Priest plays in the background. There's a Marshall amp and "guitar hero" on the van monitor, too.

Heavy metal music is increasingly used in ad campaigns. Target is running one right now with a woman making pancakes while AC/DC blares in the background. I assume ad execs think the use of classic metal bands adds an element of "danger" to otherwise banal products geared toward a post-Boomer generation. If my thesis is true, what does this say about Metal overall? Perhaps Metal isn't underground at all anymore. Sort of takes all the danger out of the genre, eh?