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it makes for strange bedfellows · by Rafi Kam
Back in November I wrote about Honda’s hip-hop marketing efforts for the 2006 Civic.
Further evidence that this is not just a “weird gimmick” on Honda’s part actually arrived in my inbox shortly thereafter. It was not sent directly from Honda but from a gmail account on behalf of “Media Services NYC”.
Perhaps one day I will learn where I went wrong in life to end up on all these damn hip-hop spammer lists. But I was actually happy about this piece of spam because it was like my next blog post had been delivered right to my doorstep. Then I did what I always do. I waited, delayed, procrastinated, forgot and moved on in my life.
But when I saw Michael Miraflor at Hip Hop Blogs post last week about Ludacris music in a Pontiac ad I remembered that old piece of junk e-mail and dug it up.
New York, NY November 30, 2005 – As WU-LATINO prepares it’s first official release, label president Rayroq Acosta teams up with Honda motors to debut a cinematic music video for the new single, “Mamita Ven”, starring Los Yo Yais who will be featured in the up coming “Revolucion Tour” and “ Cuervoton Tour” starting in early 2006. On the heals of his success as VP of Musica Latina & Marketing at Urban Box Office, Rayroq makes a big splash with the music video which will be the first time an American corporation fully sponsors a reggaeton music video. Directed by Edwin Decena, “Mamita Ven”, is a romantic tale that finds Los Yo Yais taking their boss’s (Rayroq’s) nieces for a day around the town. Ultimately, the girls become enchanted by Shown Black and NP Killa’s charm and they prompt the guys to sneak off with them. Once Rayroq finds out that his nieces snuck out with Los Yo Yais, he calls on his goons to look for his nieces. The video ends as a “to be continued”.
Featured in the video is the new line of 2006 Honda Civics. “It was a great experience working with Los Yo Yais, very humble and talented artist” said director Edwin Decena. “We’ve taken reggaeton to uncharted territory, by garnering corporate sponsorship, the genre will be afforded the same opportunities that have been available to American hip hop artist” said president Ray Acosta.” It’s something we are very proud of at Wu-tang Latino and it is a standard that we are looking to maintain…trailblazers in the genre.”
I can’t blame you if you didn’t get past “on the heals of”. And you definitely shouldn’t hold your breath for the “to be continued.”
Los Yo Yais, a trio with good reason to be “very humble”, are on Wu-Tang Latino and their video can be viewed here.
Basically, in this “romantic tale”, two latin princesses decide to go on a shopping spree and their rich and powerful uncle assigns two lame shmo’s to chauffeur them around in a Honda Civic. To me this sounds more like a Punk’d scenario than the music video you want promoting your car but then comes all those earnest shots of the economy coupe just rollin’ down Rodeo Drive and my heart goes a-flutter.
I must admit there is a certain symmetry between the lameness of the car being promoted, the limp beat and the low-energy of the artists. Well at least nothing outshines anything else in this video.
Here’s a tip to the next car company that wants to show two alleged friends of the RZA driving around and having no chemistry with hot hispanic chicks. Try Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino. I guarantee a much more entertaining end-result – with crossover appeal!
In his post Miraflor mentions the potential danger of associating yourself with a weak brand. Weak is a fairly ambiguous word though. It seems to me that if the brands can relate to each other in some interesting way and share a moment (think of the three brand-building players of DangerDoom for instance) they will end up with greater gains than two ill-fitting strong brands (e.g. that lame Eminem Itunes commercial).
It’s pretty clear that neither Wu-Tang nor Honda will really benefit from their association with each other or especially from their relationship with Los Yo Yais. Wu-Tang themselves are probably most responsible for the idea of a rap act being its own brand. But over the past ten years the Wu has fallen far out of the spotlight and they are no longer putting forth the same cohesive vision.
And lets face it, a Honda Civic has no business trying to look glossy in this kind of hip-hop video. It’s nothing but Madison Avenue masturbation. Honda would have been better off getting J-Zone to do a funny rap about how he’s stuck driving a Civic because he can’t afford a Beamer or a Benz. That’s a move that would have added a level of honesty and humor unheard of in car advertising. Best of all it would have been entertaining and something worth noticing unlike this trash.
See Hugh Macleod on Disruption as the best form of marketing.
Without direction or vision a partnership basically ends up being a haphazard collection of logos. And logo soup is exactly what the email ended with (see image above). It’s weird to see the Wu logo sitting comfortably by the Honda or NBC logos. That sums it all up though. The mystique of the W, which used to be eager to switch into new letters with each new endeavor, makes a final switch to just another lame company insignia after all.
Comments for "it makes for strange bedfellows"
You pretty much called it about J-Zone.
from www.zonesite.com
“J-ZONE IN A SUPERBOWL COMMERCIAL?!
Yeah, ho. Well, I don’t actually appear in one. I ain’t handsome enough. But a new song I did for Sprint (yeah the phone company) called “Ca$h In The Bank” will appear in a Sprint commercial that will air during the Superbowl XL on Sunday Feb 5(ABC-TV). The snippet of my song is like 2 seconds, but shit, thats long enough for me! There’s a Benny Hill styled theme to the commercial, and the song plays when one of the dudes asks the other what song he would play on his phone if he won the Lottery. So be on the lookout. The full song will be available for download at the Sprint store soon (for those who got Sprint phones and want the Zone on their cel.)”
— David Feb 7, 05:59 PM
you posess great writing skills but i see how easy it is to piggy back. I have never heard of either artist, i am however familiar with WU TANG CLAN but i can tell by this one sided article that you obviously know j-zone. actually i couldn’t get past “Honda would have been better off getting J-Zone to do a funny rap…” i was with you the whole time on the piggy backing of hip hop in corporate america untill you piggy backed a horrible video to plug in another unknown. Over all this was a good story. Congrats!!!
— Just lil ol me.. Feb 25, 12:57 PM
Hey Just,
Thanks for checking out the article but I disagree with your take on why I bring up J-Zone.
J-Zone is not a purpose-less new act like Los Yo Yais. He’s quite known in indie circles from putting out records since 98 or 99 and producting for others.
More importantly I bring up his name because as with dangerdoom it would be a better fit to the product. Zone rapping in a self-deprecating style about his Honda and hating on rich people’s rides sounds right up his alley.
— Rafi Feb 25, 02:41 PM
PUES PARA EMPEZAR Q ME PASARON EL LINK DE “WU LATINO” PORQ YO SOY CANTANTE DE REGGAETON Y UN MIEMBRO DE UNA DISQUERA “LOS RAZOZ” ME DIJO QUE YO ERA MEJOR QUE VARIOS DE LOS INTEGRANTES DE EL “LABEL” YA QUE IO ME AUTOPRODUSCO” Y ESCRIBO Y CANTO MIS PROPIAS CANCIONES..RADICO EN EL EDO DECHIHUAHUA” MEXICO Y YA TENGO 2 AÑOS EN EL GENERO “LIRICO” Y ME RESPALDA MI PRIMER DEMO CON MI PRIMO ….YA QUE SOMO 2 INTEGRANTESLOS Q FORMAMOS “FeeLyNo & PrYMoH” YHEMOS TENIDO MUCHO EXITO AQUI EN LA CIUDAD Y ME GUSTARIA QUE ME CONTACTARAN EN MI MAIL PARA PASARLE A “RAYROQ” DIRECTAMENTE NUESTRO “TALENTO” Y PUDIERAN VER QUE SIA AY GENTE CON TALENTO “AUTONOMO” Y “AUTOSIFICENTE” CON PROYECCION EN LOS ESENARIOS….
ATTE:
MI MAIL ES:.- “chikoftvip@hotmail.com”
P.D.-ESPERO SU RESPUESTA LO ANTES POSIBLE SI LES INTERESA MI FUSION DE GENEROS Y EL PROYECTO…!SEE U!
— FeeLyNo D.J. Apr 23, 12:23 AM
You can buy Yo Yais new album in the following link
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=219581827&s=143441
Or You can listen to their new hot joint, its the third track on the album, but most of them are really hot.. I got the all the tracks..Its well worth it.
http://minasnet.podomatic.com/enclosure/2007-03-23T15_39_41-07_00.mp3
— LatinXXX Apr 3, 06:13 PM
Just got the New Yo Yais too.. Pretty cool stuff
— PapiChampu Apr 4, 12:03 AM