Oh Mercy! Did I just see Bob Dylan selling cars in a Super Bowl commercial?

I can't remember the commercial, only that it was for a pharmaceutical, but a little tiny piece of me died when I heard the Overture from Tommy in it. That was my first experience with Townshend's music as pitchman.

I don't have much to say when an artist licenses their music to commercials. It's their right to do so, obviously. But I guess I prefer it when they don't.

It could be that Dylan was used to a certain income from publishing and perhaps that diminishes with the advent of online piracy? So, he starts doing commercials. Was there actually a Dylan song in that commercial? I don't even remember.

 

"Things Have Changed" with the revealing line "I used to care, but things have changed."

 

I believe Claritin was the product in question. The commercial for Lee Myles ("I can drive for miles and miles") was even more objectionable, in my opinion.

And, yes, "Things Have Changed" was being put through the ringer as Bob read that babble.

 

He made a great video for that song and of course it was just an add for Wonder Boys but I don't care. It's a great song, great movie, and great soundtrack. I loved seeing Bob in the commercial. It's just no big deal to me.

 

He's got 2 ex-wives that we know of, and possibly a third. Bunch of grandkids. Employees that need to be paid. Multiple properties that need maintenance. He tours a lot, but record sales are (probably) relatively modest by now.

While I doubt that he's hurting, a cash injection is always good.

 

I thought that was the weakest of Chrysler's trilogy of Super Bowl ads - the best being "Imported from America" with Eminem in 2013 followed by "Halftime in America" with Clint Eastwood last year - for a couple of reasons.

First and foremost, Bob Dylan just isn't a very good pitchman. He's just about the last guy I think of when I think of cars, and I bet he resonates with few beyond the boomer generation. That, in and of itself, isn't a fatal problem except for...

The ad didn't work. Worse, it could be construed as a slight. The United States was once a manufacturing powerhouse. We made just about everything. Chrysler seems to be saying, "Well, at least we've still got cars." But guess what.... We don't. Not entirely. Japanese and German automakers build many of their their cars here, and many "American" cars that are sold here are made in... Canada and Mexico.

The idea that there are American or German or Japanese auto industries in a globalized world is a myth. But then, advertising deals more with myths than reality,

 

I was watching a special on PBS about, among other things, American manufacturing, and they stated that the U.S. is manufacturing more goods now that it ever has, but the rub is that the means of production is largely computerized and mechanized--robots, basically. In manufacturing scenarios that once required hundreds of workers, now only maybe a half dozen to a dozen are required. So, what we've lost is actually manufacturing jobs, not manufacturing.

Anyway, I totally agree with everything else you wrote. I think of Dylan as someone who gets driven around town, not someone who actually drives a car or even wants to. He's not the late Paul Newman, that's for sure.

 

That's a very good point, and a driving factor in the "reshoring" trend in which manufacturing is coming back from overseas. Beyond the fact that China's burgeoning middle class is driving up wages and many companies find it faster and more efficient to manufacture their goods closer to their buyers, America leads the way in automation technology. That's one of the key reasons Foxconn wants to open a factory in the USA...

 

Well, if that happens...

 

After all these years Bob can still be Bob and get people speculating and analyzing. A very powerful Super Bowl commercial, as we have come to expect from Chrysler over the past three years.

 

Exactly.

 

Good one, I love it. Save that for the people who think Bob is "selling out".

 

And if robots won't work out you can always send the jobs to China and pay the workers a couple of bucks a day. I worked in plant that had 2000 people working in it at it's peak but those jobs are in China now. There was a Levi Straus plant across the street and it closed and now those jobs are in Mexico. Philips Semiconductor plant down the road, closed and jobs moved "offshore" as they like to call it.

 

It's worth noting that Chrysler may have gone for irony with that whole "made in America" thing, what with them being a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat. In which case, the ad was brilliant satire, and Dylan perfectly cast for his deadpan delivery.

In that light, I may have to reconsider my earlier position.

 

You may be overthinking this, and attributing far more intelligence to that ad than it merits. Avoid the glass onion, going down that rabbit hole, etc. LOL.

 

I think Bob did it because he knew it would really annoy some folk and that there would be music discussion boards talking about it for days (weeks....months....) afterwards.

 

Having read this entire thread, I think that if I knew I could get paid for something, and at the same time irritate all kinds of people who think they know better what my own business should be...

...I'd do it in a heartbeat.

ccm

 

I just managed to download it.

It's a horrible little piece of nauseating propaganda

Maybe it will sell some cars.

I wish he'd start Theme Time Radio Hour back up again.

ccm

 

Burning ring of fire

 

I doubt Bob has has face work done. There are chemicals that will temporarily tighten up the face and shrink bags under the eyes and make you look really great and younger for 5 to 8 hours. And he has been touching up the color of his hair for many years.

That's all I suspect here. That are good makeup.

 

I licenced a song of mine to an advertisement mobile phone company. It helped me greatly to get a deposit for a house and allowed my bandmate to quit his job driving trucks and go back to trade school to become an electrician.

It's the only real money I have ever made from music. Why these amazing artists whose songs mean so much to so many people, sell their precious work when they have more than enough money I will never know though!

 

Dylan is a creepy f*cker who can't act for toffee. He looks like a bad cgi version of himself in that ad.

 

They're all crap. Remember when people used to mute commercials or go to the bathroom or get a beer during them? Whoever managed to convince the world that commercials were more important than what they purport to sponsor should be the Dean of the University of Television.

 

He has convinced everyone here that he's above doing commercials, for about 50 years. That's good acting.

 

It's not just for shrinking bloated piles: