bonjour les cueilleurs de pop
well, well. a bit of a double event for me, this one. proof, if it was ever required, that i am not so totes obsessed with Bowie to know of all what he gone done, look you see, and all the further evidence of how well i am doing in not having him, he, the great one, feature on this blog once a month. or so.
musicians, pop stars and other associated artists (artistes) tend to get a touch of a hard time from some corners, or quarters, when they try to earn coins of money in the commercial world. basically every one in the arts what does this gets labelled a "sell out" by some, except oddly actors and actresses, of which such behaviour is presumably expected. or accepted. strange this, for, allowing for the "have something to say" argument true of most, if not all, art, well, why go public with it if not to earn a living?
that said, this one took me rather by surprise. it's no secret (at all) that Bowie quite liked ensuring he earned a fair whack for what he did, and why not. whereas some of his ventures into earning coins are well documented - "Bowie Bonds", and so forth - this one slipped by my radar, or missed my attention.
people what are (considerably) better informed than what i am (or was) shall no doubt recognise the above as being a still from the advert for something called vittel water what Bowie apparently did. given that the soundtrack is Never Get Old off of Reality, he must have gone done this around late 2003 or at some point in 2004. just before he went into a quasi exile, then. which weirdly kind of (sort of) beat to the chase what Sean Connery did in respect of an ostensible final public appearance.
usually, normally or at least as it once was, it was Japanese companies what paid an extraordinary amount of money to use celebrities to endorse various products. often of flexible relevance to the celebrity employed. like, for instance, this. peculiar, if not strange, to see that at one stage the French had so much money to throw around as to be able to lure Bowie in. my understanding of French tele, based mostly on vague memories of something called Rapido, is that very few people actually watch it, least of all Frenchies themselves.
i am going to assume, or take as a given, since this blog makes no (zero) money, that them what do this vittel water are not going to object to me showcasing their advert for the dozen or so people what read what i write. so, then, here you go. the advert, on video, in full, below.
quite brilliant, really. very amusing indeed, especially that bit where Bowie channels his inner Sir Roger and acts with his eyebrows alone. nice, as a fan, to see him so comfortable and relaxed with several of his more iconic moments. generally the sense, or idea, one has is that he really rather preferred to move on from a look or style, so yes, great to see him (no doubt of usual subversive mind) have a bit of fun with it all.
exactly how much extra (or more) water did vittel, who(m)ever they may be, flog or sell as a direct result of procuring the services of David Bowie to promote it? i have absolutely no idea. to be fair, this advert is kind of pretty much an artistic work in itself. no doubt Bowie made sure he got a hefty wedge for doing it, so if vittel picked up some profits too, well so much the better.
some might suggest that i am not a 'proper' Bowie fan on the basis of not knowing this, what, 18 year old advert existed until recently. fair comment, i suppose, but i rather like to look at it as being presently, indeed happily, surprised when something what is "new" to me crops up like this. being a know it all wins you few friends and less popularity contests, believe me.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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