Post #142826 by TikiGardener on Wed, Feb 23, 2005 2:36 PM

Bill Hicks had a very short lived sitcom, I forget the name. He tried to convince himself to play by the rules, thinking that he might be able to slowly shift the theme and content of the show. He hated it.

Not knowing him personally, but knowing some of his close friends. And also knowing the content of his 39 page letter to David Letterman when the cut his skit because it might offend certain advertisers on the show, I feel fairly safe in saying I seriously doubt Hicks would have sold out.

I doubt we'd ever see him selling orange drink.

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. Thank you, thank you. Just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day they'll take root. I don't know. You try. You do what you can. Kill yourselves. Seriously though, if you are, do. No really, there's no rationalisation for what you do, and you are Satan's little helpers, OK? Kill yourselves, seriously. You're the ruiner of all things good. Seriously, no, this is not a joke. "There's gonna be a joke coming..." There's no fucking joke coming, you are Satan's spawn, filling the world with bile and garbage, you are fucked and you are fucking us, kill yourselves, it's the only way to save your fucking soul. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show.

"You know what Bill's doing now, he's going for the righteous indignation dollar, that's a big dollar, a lot of people are feeling that indignation, we've done research, huge market. He's doing a good thing." Godammit, I'm not doing that, you scumbags, quit putting a godamn dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!" ---BILL HICKS

Oh, I do know that there exist videos of Hicks in his last days. I've tried to get his ex to let me view them. She won't let them out of her immediate vicinity because she's afraid that someone may exploit them. Which she says would be against Bill's wishes. I have utmost respect for the man and his frame of mind regarding advertising before he died.

As to why is it "wrong" to hear pop songs in a commercial. I think that part of the problem is things like that etrade commercial with the band singing about revolution while they flash images of why that particular trading company is so great. The people trying to get you to buy that service are the very people the band in the background were singing about revolting against.

CONTEXT!!!

Hey, Moby got his money and a lot of exposure by letting people use his stuff. Great, more power to him. Especially when he donates some of the money he makes from it to groups derectly opposed to the big car companies practices. It can be done in such a way that is entertaining on a few levels.

But also keep inmind that a number of artists no longer control their catalog. Someone bought the rights long ago, and are more than willing to cash in on their investment.

But I still reserve the right to be disgusted when I hear Have Love Will Travel selling Range Rovers. Your mileage may vary, and I'm just fine with that.

Now can we get more corpaorate product placement in these threads?

:wink:

'Oh come on, Bill, they're the New Kids, don't pick on them, they're so good and they're so clean cut and they're such a good image for the children.' Fuck that. When did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children? I want my children to listen to people who fucking rocked. I don't care if they died in puddles of their own vomit. I want someone who plays from his fucking heart.

[ Edited by: tikigardener on 2005-02-24 00:01 ]