They could have done worse...put the ad out when the album came out..we can't buy the single in the shops, and iTues only factors in so much, so I don't know how this could possibly help the song on the charts. The charts are based mostly on radio airplay, and radio aren't going to start playing the song b/c it was on TV. So they couldn't have "vertigO' in mind doing this.
If U2 was ever going to do an ad in their lives...ie allow one of their songs to be used for a TV commercial...(allow? Wrong term...they own all their publishing and catalog) it would be for a musical product such as a Walkman, or some device you play music with. I have no problem with that. This factors in with what the guys do for a living. The iPod is a revolutionary device (I've never used one but I have read a lot about them)....so it would be like someone inventing the stereo, or 100 yrs ago, the Victorola record player. And if the company that made it asked u2 to be one of many artists who promoted it to be spokesmen, fine.
Apple was probably desperate to get them, though, b/c I have a feeling that demand for these things has peaked. They are damned expensive, and the price isn't going down anytime soon. You can get a PC secondhand cheaper than you can get one of these things.
Bravo for u2 for trying to spread awareness, the iPod is a neat thing,a major invention in the history of popular music, but I hope they realize that the vast majority of theit audience can't afford them. And even people who can, may feel disinclined to heed the ad and buy one right now, even for Christmas, b/c tix of a typical show on their tour will likely cost as much as a third of the price of one. (Uh..*COUGH*..guys?
And we're all saving for the tour! If I catch them outside the Four Seasons i Boston this tour, like last time, I will personally (but poilitely) give one of them a piece of my mind.
I look at it this way: If U2 chose to do one TV commerical in their lives, it would be for a musical listening device. If it were for ANY other product, period, yes, they'd be selling out. And look at the ad: it features the band and people dancing. The ad did not whore the product. If the whole thing was a big pic of an Ipod, I'd have concerns.
That said, I will give them the benfit of the doubt this time, but I am now officially putting the band on probation, like I did after Pop. One more ad for ANY OTHER type of product, and I am gone from the U2 Family. Out. Fintito. Period. I'd rather Bono divorced Ali and became a smackhead, than see any more of these, for anything else. I don't care if it's 20 yrs from now. And we had damned well not see any Apple logos on the tix etc. My patience will only go so far. They have not crossed the line yet, in my book, but this is a heads up.
REALLY REALLY WEIRD....this is just evidence of how deep a fan I am. Over the yrs I have gotten hunches, had dreams, or had strange thoughts pop into my head sometimes for no apparent reason. Like the band members having children. I'd think one day, at work, totally out of the blue, "I wonder if Larry and Anne are ever going to have any kids?" And then a week later the news comes across that Larry's just had a boy. Or if Bono will ever have a son..and a week and half later, comes news that Ali is pregnant again. And I swear, "news" that Bono was going to Africa came to me this way too. A hunch.
Just today I was thinking, totally out of the blue, "Thank GOD 'Streets' never ended up in a car commercial. I wonder if anybody will try to get hold of a U2 song this time around? Destiny's Child..what a tragedy..."
