I have a love/hate thing with classic songs being used in commercials, but the use of Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ in a new ad for Playstation falls onto the ‘love’ side. Perfect Day was first recorded for Reed’s classic 1972 David Bowie-produced album Transformer and as the B-side to ‘Walk on the Wild Side’.
As part of their Greatest Awaits campaign, “Perfect Day” is sung by a character appearing in scenes from Playstation games The Elder Scrolls Online, Driveclub and Killzone Shadow Fall. The tender lyrics juxtaposed against the violence and mayhem works… well, perfectly.
The ad was created by BBH, New York, and directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen for MJZ.
[via AdWeek]
Sorry, but I have to disagree completely. I mean, really, what makes that a perfect day? Virtual wanton killing, destruction and mayhem? Do we share the same world? I wonder how the song came to be used for that ad, so soon after Lou Reed’s death. He was an artist with a sense of irony, this is just headbashing.
Well of course a Perfect Day in real life doesn’t include killing and mayhem. I am not a gamer or pro-violence, but it’s just an ad a video game platform and should resonate with that audience. The song and lyrics juxtaposed against the mayhem in the game were what caught my attention when it first saw it on TV.
The advertisement came out a few weeks before Reed’s death.
This advert is tailor made to appeal to weakling little fanboys who don’t know this song from anywhere else (or understand its significance) and truly look forward to spending a day fantasizing about being someone else, and doing something wantonly violent to assert themselves – all the while being reassured that they are participating in something ‘great’ and bonding with another like-minded masturbator… So yup, they hit the nail on the head.