He’s baaaaaack.
When MultiCultClassics last spotlighted Tim Arnold, the man had just published an Adweek editorial insisting that blues music could help solve Madison Avenue’s diversity issues (see Essays 1544 and 1560). Well, Arnold is once again blubbering on the blues, presenting another long-winded, gaseous emission. Check it out, plus catch the brief MultiCultClassics response immediately following…
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Art & Commerce: Get a (Real) Life
By Tim Arnold
When I guest teach, I urge aspiring ad wannabe’s to get a life outside the business, to be passionate about something from real life as opposed to ad life. Doesn’t matter what it is—just find something you can lose yourself in, something that reaches a place deep down and energizes your everything. Italian opera. Swimming. Mid-century modern design. The history of condoms. Street art. Steinbeck. Rescue dogs. Customized Chia pets. Whatever. You’ll be better off for it, you’ll be a more interesting person, you’ll be happier. And trust me, sooner or later you’ll be able to apply it somehow, some way, some day to advertising.
My passion is the blues. There’s this album, Ray Charles in Person, recorded at the old Herndon Stadium in Atlanta, which includes “Tell the Truth,” maybe the greatest live cut ever recorded, even more remarkable when you realize they got it all on a rainy day in Georgia with a single microphone and a portable tape recorder—I am hooked on the drug that is and forever will be the blues. The rhythm that is the blues.
When I was growing up in St. Louis, Benny Sharpe had a kick-ass band—pomaded hair, slick and cool. I’m sure half his band had done time. His sax player would always have a lit cigarette stuck in one of his horn’s keys while he played, and Benny stuck his filter first on the sharp end of a string from his Fender Strat, one just like Ike Turner’s.
One time, Sharpe steered his boat-long, tail-finned red Cadillac right into MidWest Laundry just inside St. Louis city limits, where I worked Saturdays during high school. We had curb service and he was picking up some dry cleaning. He didn’t even park in a space, just pulled up long ways, defying anybody to suggest otherwise, and handed me his ticket. His processed, pomaded hair shone like neon lights on a beer glass, and there was this gorgeous blonde white woman wedged up next to him in the front seat. Cool.
I went and got his cleaned-and-pressed sharkskin suit for him. Three-dollar tip for a $2.75 cleaning bill. He was probably on his way over to a gig at Sam Spaulding’s Wonder Bar, on the East Side. This was the blues.
Now it’s 20 years later. I’m a punk-ass assistant account dog on the Budweiser business and it’s time for a new set of radio spots. Budweiser was always gifted with a brilliant jingle, befitting the King of Beers—“Where there’s life, there’s Bud,” “Here comes the king,” “When you say Budweiser, you’ve said it all,” “This Bud’s for you.” Valerie Simpson, of Ashford and Simpson, sang the pivotal, original, “When you say Budweiser…” campaign theme, establishing an amazingly high bar for the real deal. But our radio packages were always produced with what they called “sound-alike” studio versions, segmented by market—well intended, but more like “official” commercial music than anything real.
Now, along comes one of the creative guys with studio demos for the next sound alikes, this time for the black market. He’s actually got the right idea somehow, with a couple of demos that hint at Johnny “Guitar” Watson, an early rapper who was rappin’ even before James Brown “invented” rap. And I say, “Shit, why don’t we just hire ‘Guitar’ himself?” (What do I know?) So we do. And in great Budweiser style: unidentified, authentic, no sellout, no pitch, no endorsements. Just jam your music thing in between Bud melody bookends and the people who get it will get it, and the rest will follow.
And they did. Watson was first. After that, no more sound alikes. We ended up recording BB King, the Temptations, Rick James, Frankie Beverly, Herbie Hancock, Bootsy Collins, Stanley Clarke, War, Billy Preston, The Busboys, Jimmy Cliff, Sugahh, plus Robert Gordon, Oingo Boingo, Janis Ian, Leon Redbone, Karla DeVito, Mickey Thomas, Lacy J. Dalton, George Thorogood, Jennifer Warnes and Journey, to name a few. And we catapult Bud into the No. 1 share positions in every segment.
It’s no big thing. Just the real deal. A passion runs headlong into a situation and becomes an idea. All you’ve got to do is go for it.
There’s nothing like the blues for me.
That’s my other life. What’s yours?
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OK, Tim, we get it already. Your punk-ass genius launched a creative breakthrough. Why, if not for you, those music legends never would have realized their full potential to perform on Budweiser radio spots.
But it’s curious that you declared, “I’m sure half his band had done time.” Did you play harmonica alongside them in a jail cell? And your fascination with an artist accompanied by “this gorgeous blonde white woman wedged up next to him in the front seat” is, um, interesting. Then again, maybe not.
Thanks for sharing the memories, dude.
7 comments:
No way to say this without it coming off racist, but one of the worst things still going on with brands is when they always hire some white guys who, while they may have decent voices, end up singing the blues in some weak, gruff-voiced pale imitation of the original.
You leave Dan Akroyd, Jim Belushi and John Goodman alone!
Besides, House Of Blues has been providing comfort to condescending white liberals and marginally passable soundstages for undervalued black artists for 20 years now.
Furthermore, if weren't for DieHard part 12, Bruce Willis would still be subjecting us Return of Bruno albums and tours.
think you mean john belushi. although maybe brother jim filled in after john croaked. all those white blues brothers look the same.
@Hustleknocker: Excellent point about Willis. Because the American public has a seemingly insatiable appetite for bad music by famous people.
OH, you went Bruce Willis on me. Okay, I see you, and raise you a Don Johnson.
Forgive the langauge, but allow me to quote George Carlin:
"I think that if white people are going to burn down black churches, then black people oughta burn down the House of Blues. What a fucking disgrace that place is. 'The House of Blues', they oughta call it the house of lame white motherfuckers. Inauthentic, low-frequency, single-digit, lame white motherfuckers. Especially these male movie stars who think they're blues artists. Have you ever see these guys? Don't you just wanna puke in your soup when one of these fat, balding, overweight, over-aged, out-of-shape, middleaged male movie stars with sunglasses jumps onstage and starts blowing into a harmonica? It's a fucking sacrelidge. In the first place, white people got no business playing the blues, ever. At all. Under any circumstances, ever, ever, ever. What the fuck do white people have to be blue about? Banana Republic ran out of Khakis? The espresso machine is jammed? Hootie and the Blowfish are breaking up?!? White people oughta understand their job is to give people the blues-- not to get them. And certianly not to sing or play them. I'll tell you a little secret about the blues, it's not enough to know which notes to play, you gotta know why they need to be played."
Wow, reading that article by Tim Arnold brought back some frightening memories of ad men. I was the recording engineer on the BB King Budweiser radio spot. That session was the single most embarrassing moment of my career. Having to spend 6 hours in a room with completely out of touch advertising executives and "creatives" trying to tell BB King just how to play the blues. I only wish I had it on video tape.
Anyone who has ever listened to BB King knows that he never plays over his vocals, though the "passionate" blues enthusiast seemed to have no clue to this. I remember cringing whenever they pressed the talkback button to say something like "BB...babe...I want to hear Lucille wail over the entire spot"..."Give me some Lucille BB". Of course they also had him singing "Bud" lyrics throughout the entire spot with no holes left for his guitar work. Mr. King was however gracious and accommodating throughout the arduous process and I'm sure the entire band got a good laugh afterwards. Check please.
They never did get him to play over his vocal until I sent a number of 4 bar vocal refrains to magnetic heaven.
The fact is that having celebrities hawk a product is neither groundbreaking nor creative...it's Marketing 101. People are suckers for "if HE or SHE uses it, it must be great". The only tough thing about it is prying the money to pay the celebrity out of the budget.
One thing Ad Men are VERY good at is tooting their own horn.
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