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http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/t...oes_over-1.html

Zeppelin in Verizon commercial goes over like artistic Led balloon

Monday, January 14th 2008, 4:00 AM

Coffrini/Getty

Robert Plant still tours, while fans keep hoping for a Zeppelin reunion.

The battle to keep good songs from becoming product marketing tools was fought and mostly lost some time ago.

But it's still disheartening to hear Led Zeppelin's music in a new Verizon commercial and realize a band that won't take calls from its millions of fans took one from a phone company.

Taken on its own, the ad is kind of cool. A kid listening to Zep's "Kashmir" on his headphones walks down a street past buildings and characters from Zep album covers. At the end, he answers his Verizon phone.

The ad sort of promotes the band, to the extent that the Zep catalogue and some Zep ringtones are now available online through Verizon V-Cast. That in turn indirectly promotes the band's new greatest-hits package, "Mothership."

But really, the ad is using all the cachet and rock-god aura of Led Zeppelin to promote Verizon, to say Verizon has a piece of that cool now.

That's why 1,000 companies have bought 1,000 songs, for so much money that U2 sings for iPod and even a skeptic like John Mellencamp eventually sang a patriotic ditty for Chevy Silverado.

Nor is it easy to begrudge artists the money. Bob Seger used the cash Chevy paid him for "Like a Rock" as an annuity so he could come off the road and help raise his kids.

But Zep is an atypical case. This is a band so concerned about the packaging of its music that it refused to lease Live Aid footage of what it considered a subpar performance. A band that kept its songs off iTunes for years.

Most frustrating for fans, it's a band that so far has declined to regroup and tour, even after it got more than a million requests for tickets to a December one - in London.

Thing is, says Robert Plant, it wouldn't be right to do a tour just for the money. The musical integrity has to be right.

Like, apparently, having "Kashmir" sell Verizon phone service.

It's frustrating, not that there's much to be done about it. It is their call.

The one upside to all these years of pop songs selling products on TV - the Beatles' "Revolution" selling Nike sneakers, Marvin Gaye's "Grapevine" selling raisins, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin' " touting a bank - is that good songs seem to survive and recover.

Nonetheless, songs become part of our lives because they say something to us, and that something is not, "Buy some totally unrelated product."

That's a third party trying to cash in on the message, and no matter how prevalent the practice has become, corporations and good songs will never have a relationship any closer than that.

It's a stairway to the basement.

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A new age. A new marketing tool. No big shakes to me. I like the Ad.

David Hinckley is one of the better rock critics out there IMO. He has always been super critical about Led Zeppelin in a commercial setting. He kind of had a hissy about the Cadillac commercial a few years ago also. I brought it to his attention that Robert did a Coke commercial beforehand using Zeppelins music as the hook in the ad. Unofficially yes, none the less Jimmy's hooks were being used to sell Coke, period. Hinckley is a fan, and it shows. I respect him.

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I get where he is coming from and I agree with him, but I also understand that those types of promotional campaigns aren't targeted at guys like me, they are for the 13 year old getting into Zeppelin for the first time and works as great cross promotion. I don't like it but I get it. FWIW I hated those Cadillac ads

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  • 2 weeks later...
verizon - the stairway to heaven phone company bringing you Led Zeppelin 08

Interesting bit of news as there's a new Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre in Atlanta (Tom Petty, The Eagles and RUSH have been added to their summer tour schedule)...

If Verizon were to sponsor a US Zep tour in '08 or '09, I'm sure it would be one of their stops.

...I did a little research and found...

In the US, there's quite a few of Verizon Wireless Ampitheatres:

some of the locations include:

Alpharetta, Georgia (Atlanta)

Birmingham, Alabama

Charlotte, NC

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Manchester, New Hampshire

Nobilesville, Indiana (Indianapolis)

St. Louis, Missouri

Selma, Texas (San Antonio)

Houston, Texas

Irvine, California

It seems like a logical business stragegy/deal:

(Sign an exclusive download deal with a BIG company to get their music in the most immediate fashion and then sign them to play their ampitheatres across the US in an exclusive tour).

Crossing my fingers...

We'll wait and see.

R B)

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I agree with the article. I think exactly that every time I hear a song in a commercial. thanks for making me think of Cadillacs and Verizon, every time I hear your music Led Zeppelin...

Cadillac, and Verizon are the furthest thing on my mind when I listen to Led Zeppelin. When I listen to Kashmir, one of the things I think of is a mystical journey being taken in a far off land. That's one thought, I have many for Kashmir. I can still remember the first time I ever heard it. I think back to that also. Or the countless times I had it blasting in my first apartment when I was 17, and literary shaking the walls to the point of being threatened to be evicted.

Rock & Roll has many different appeals, Cadillac not being any of them for me. Soon as i hear the opening I think of Bonzo, and his love for good music, keep a knockin but you can't come in, then it goes off into all kinds of openings of live shows, and closings that I have listened to over the years.

I can't imagine having TV add images in my head.

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I don't think Verizon either when I hear Led Zeppelin, but if that is what it takes (as a means) to get newer listeners (reaching the next/ younger generation) to hear Led Zeppelin and Page & company profit from it, then more power to them.

It's just advertising to me. I tune it out unless it is something I want to hear.

R B)

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I feel the same way, although I think we really live in a consumerist throwaway culture with a panoply of musical choice and it's harder and harder for classic rock acts to remain relevant without making some gesture to appeal to the next generation. So I can only attribute the Verizon ad to that. It's a way to get their name out there and appear hip. Just like Jimmy did in whoring Kashmir out on the Godzilla soundtrack.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/t...oes_over-1.html

Zeppelin in Verizon commercial goes over like artistic Led balloon

Monday, January 14th 2008, 4:00 AM

Coffrini/Getty

Robert Plant still tours, while fans keep hoping for a Zeppelin reunion.

The battle to keep good songs from becoming product marketing tools was fought and mostly lost some time ago.

>good songs have been used as marketing tools since the invention of the drum.

But it's still disheartening to hear Led Zeppelin's music in a new Verizon commercial and realize a band that won't take calls from its millions of fans took one from a phone company.

> i've never felt that way and i've been a zep fan for decades. i may not have gotten a wristband at O2 or a full-fledged tour (yet), but i did get mostly decent music and dvd releases, overseen by the band and page hands on. i've seen great shows sporting some zep music from all the surviving members at one time or another....

Taken on its own, the ad is kind of cool. A kid listening to Zep's "Kashmir" on his headphones walks down a street past buildings and characters from Zep album covers. At the end, he answers his Verizon phone.

> i think the ad is as cool as an ad can get. kinda reminds me of a short zep-version of the beatles "free as a bird" video....the best music video i've ever seen (nonperformance only)

The ad sort of promotes the band, to the extent that the Zep catalogue and some Zep ringtones are now available online through Verizon V-Cast. That in turn indirectly promotes the band's new greatest-hits package, "Mothership."

>i have kashmir!! communicaton breakdown!!

But really, the ad is using all the cachet and rock-god aura of Led Zeppelin to promote Verizon, to say Verizon has a piece of that cool now.

>zeppelin is cool? what!!???!! after all these years? cool...

That's why 1,000 companies have bought 1,000 songs, for so much money that U2 sings for iPod and even a skeptic like John Mellencamp eventually sang a patriotic ditty for Chevy Silverado.

>'member mellencamp chomping on bob seger a few years ago and seger said something like "i'm from michigan and i support my community-do a popcorn commercial!" okay....

Nor is it easy to begrudge artists the money. Bob Seger used the cash Chevy paid him for "Like a Rock" as an annuity so he could come off the road and help raise his kids.

>seger was on the road????

But Zep is an atypical case. This is a band so concerned about the packaging of its music that it refused to lease Live Aid footage of what it considered a subpar performance. A band that kept its songs off iTunes for years.

> i-tunes: easy money there, passed up like a steaming hot plate of pasta, or...well,

live-aid? good call. 'nuff said...

Most frustrating for fans, it's a band that so far has declined to regroup and tour, even after it got more than a million requests for tickets to a December one - in London.

> i have to say, that in my opinion, one reason could be that robert felt that jason was the only viable drummer and there were some serious considerations before he would put jason into the "mouth of the lion", so to speak. the same lion that ate bonzo. not to mention the JPJ "parking cars" fiasco...

Thing is, says Robert Plant, it wouldn't be right to do a tour just for the money. The musical integrity has to be right.

>or possibly "intergrity" period.

Like, apparently, having "Kashmir" sell Verizon phone service.

>i have kashmir on my phone!!!! it's friggin' cool!!!

It's frustrating, not that there's much to be done about it. It is their call.

The one upside to all these years of pop songs selling products on TV - the Beatles' "Revolution" selling Nike sneakers, Marvin Gaye's "Grapevine" selling raisins, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin' " touting a bank - is that good songs seem to survive and recover.

>i really respected the beatles when they pulled that ad. but i thought it kicked ass...

Nonetheless, songs become part of our lives because they say something to us, and that something is not, "Buy some totally unrelated product."

>some of us aren't going to buy it anyway, buddy. no matter how great a tune is, it won't sell a steak to a vegetarian. any shop,mall, or boutique plays careful precision-like attention to the background music they play. and they have for years.

That's a third party trying to cash in on the message, and no matter how prevalent the practice has become, corporations and good songs will never have a relationship any closer than that.

>well, that is a very short-sighted opinion, i must say. anybody that believes that has never looked at the sales figures for some of the biggest musicians of the word. some of the greatest songs of alltime are corporations. i remember pete townshend accosting an interviewer about his memory of marvin gaye being violated by the dancing raisins. pete asked him: "what are you prepared to do? take a machine gun and shoot up madison avenue? i'll do it with you! don't talk to me about f@@king raisins!" (paraphrasing)

It's a stairway to the basement.

> is this the writer trying to use all the cachet and rock-god aura of Led Zeppelin in his writing?

cool!

beat

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