Friday
Apr272012
Whereas Steven Tyler Makes A Burger King Commercial... And I Die A Little Inside
Friday, April 27, 2012 at 12:01AM
Oh my. No one can accuse Steven Tyler of not working hard to hustle for a buck. Between Aerosmith, American Idol and greasy hamburgers, Tyler must be sweating cash.
If the rest of Aerosmith is resentful of Tyler's work on Idol, I can't imagine how this burger deal went down between the iconic rockers. Alas, watch the singer of my favorite band of all time hock heart attacks, er, chicken tenders.
Reader Comments (22)
p.s. I'm guessing he got about a half a mill for this.
They arrived a bit late though. Reason being, Don Dokken had trouble installing internet security software on Tommy's computer.
To make it up to Steve, the Crue decided to stop and pick up Tom Keifer so they could all make a run to Pat's Chili Dogs.
Sounds far-fetched. I know. Too many dudes for a Kia. So they should probably borrow Halford's Honda Odyssey.
Like Jello Biafra said: "Pull My Strings!"
p.s. let's not forget, Jello Biafra ran for Mayor of San Francisco. He came in fourth. Everybody get's their PR one way or another, Him.
Revenue from selling music is sadly not there anymore.
Touring is taxing of this superstars. Face it, they're in their 60's! They've go to supplement their income somehow. If it's not a corporate sponsorship for a tour, (Burger King presents...) then they just aren't going to do anything.
It's become the nature of the business... Remember the "KISS works at WalMart" commercial? Funny, but not exactly what I want to see them doing either. It's all residual damage from digital theft. If artists can't make $$$ from record sales, they're going to look for another source of revenue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuujWKrVilI
Couldn't it just possibly be that Tyler has become a media whore? and, if Tyler wants to be a media whore, that's his choice, but let's stop blindly guzzling the music industry Kool-Aid that "Digital theft" is to blame for all the ills of society.
Ding Ding Ding,we have a winner Johnny!!!! Tell Bob what he's won!!
That said, all successful bands are brands, and all make decisions for the sake of generating revenue. Signing a record contract, making an album, producing a video, doing radio station promos, endorsing a guitar brand, etc. - all of this is "selling out".
I still say more of us might feel differently if the commercial was funnier. I bet there was a lot funnier improvisational bits that could have been in this spot considering Tyler's knack for the killarious ad lib, but wound up on the cutting room floor.
If this commercial had been as funny as Dokken's Symantec spot or as cool as Crue's Kia ad, we all might be singing a different tune.
Advertising done right approaches art and is very often better than the shows it interrupts. However, I realize there are always going to be naysayers who shout "sell out" every time a Rockstar or celebrity make a TV commercial no matter how good it is.
I guess my point was that selling out is a matter of selling something. And I cringe a bit every time I hear a song I loved being used to grease the wheels of commerce.
And, on that point, we all have to make decisions about what we are willing to do . . . difference is, most of us don't see a paycheck as large as they do!
Great couple of posts Metalboy!
And I get your point about money and selling out not being (in all cases) the same thing. I think that is where personal preference (from a fan) comes into play. DLR and Hagar are both subject to strong opinions on those counts . . . and have been for quite a long time. Mick Jones was accused of selling out when he launched B.A.D. but he didn't make a ton of cash (though he made more than he did in The Clash, who were also accused of selling out before they imploded). DL were accused of selling out on _Slang_ (and their sales dived; same goes for MC on _Generation Swine_. Ozzy was accused of selling out during his sequin housecoat _Ultimate Sin_ days even though those seem like better days than now and he was making more money than he did during the Blizzard and Diary years. So the connection I made isn't always there. A good point again Scott.
I wonder: how strong is the link between growing old and settled, becoming a corporate shill, and musically hitting the skids? To be clear, I don't really know. But I wonder sometimes.
My own personal fear is that I sometimes confuse my wish that bands never grew past their "epic" album(s) with the fact that they moved on and I didn't. Anything that diverges from how they were counts against them . . . be it product endorsements, changes in style (music or otherwise), etc.
At the end of the day that is on me, not them.
Here it's a win-win. An advertiser gets more cred from a real song, and if the commercial is good enough, the Rock Star(s) who's song it is gets a couple of bucks without losing face completely.
On Ozzy -- as cartoonish or overexposed Sharon Osbourne has made Ozzy, personally, I still don't feel like he's ever sold out cuz his music Rocks as much B*LLS as it ever did.
I just wish the same were true with Tyler. I don't mind the commercials and American Idol. The killer is the fact that he's probably THE most talented still fully functional Rock Star alive today, yet p*sses it away, having never attempted to top "Rocks".
Either that or maybe he never attempts to because he just doesn't get the fact that it's better than all that crap he put out in the 80's.