Ridin’ Solo by Jason DeRulo
It makes me sad Jason DeRulo doesn’t sing his own name at the beginning of this song. I can no longer just simply say the name Jason DeRulo. Whenever those words come up in conversation (and they do so a surprising amount), I must sing it. *Jay-son Deruuuulohhhh*
But ok, here’s my thing. I know music videos are expensive to make. If you actually want it to look good at all, never mind even hiring a good director/location/talent etc, you’ll have to spend money either way. And even the biggest bands will (and should) take advantage of product placement to be able to make amazing music videos (Fall Out Boy did it with Thnks Fr Th Mmrs which they admitted from the beginning Tag had paid for - monkeys are expensive, okay! - though they then told fans that the cell phone advertisement that is I Don’t Care was out of their control).
So essentially, I don’t mind product placement but at least try to be subtle about it. The Ridin’ Solo video is purely product placement and Michael Jackson dance moves. Who takes an iPad out to a club anyway? And then looks up singles websites? And why would Jason DeRulo be on a singles website? He’s clearly got a flashy car (we’re shown it quite often) and an expensive watch, and according to the song he seems to enjoy his new found singledom so I’m not sure why I’d be able to find him on Plentyoffish.com.
I could say the same for Lady Gaga, though I expect more to find her jailer on a dating website than her. But the product placement in Telephone again is so damn obvious. It’s those static shots on brand names that really get to me (in case you needed another example). If I wanted to see that, I’d just watch Transformers.
And it’s grating because it can be done in a subtle way. Travis McCoy’s Billionaire clip was clearly paid for by the 4 or more products featured in it but they at least bind into the storyline in a coherent way, there are no gratuitous static shots of brand logos (unlike there are of Pete Wentz).
The over the top, in your face, unsubtle product placement is so condescending and talks down to a viewer to the point of alienation, as if every fan were the lowest common denominator. Then again, if you have fans that you need to spell the word ‘solo’ out to then maybe you do need to be obvious with them.
