Badvertising: Country Life Butter, Starring John Lydon
Now this is just weird. Easily the weirdest advert we’ve seen since Dee Dee Ramone did that commercial for diarrhea tablets – it’s John Lydon from The Sex Pistols advertising Country Life butter.
Look at him. Look at John Lydon’s happy little face as he springs about around the Morris dancers telling everyone how delicious Country Life is. He wrote God Save The Queen, you know.
Perhaps, and we get the feeling this is true, John Lydon only decided to advertise Country Life butter on TV because its first syllable sounds a bit like a swearword. Who knows?
Nevertheless, we’re confused. Is John Lydon no longer a punk because he’s appeared in a butter advert? Or is he now doubly punk because he’s confounded our expectations by rebelling against the tradition that looks down on people who appear in adverts? Or is he even less punk than we originally thought because confounding our expectations by rebelling against the tradition that looks down on people who appear in adverts is exactly what we thought he’d do, the big sell-out? Or is he the punkest punk ever because he knew we knew that we’d expect him to confound our expectations by rebelling against the tradition that looks down on people who appear in adverts and so he’s confounded that expectation instead, thereby rebelling against our own double bluff?
Discuss.
I saw this advert the other day; it was immediately followed by Suggs advertising fish fingers.
Yeah, I saw that combo as well. Remarkable.
However, I don’t hold is against Suggs. And I don’t get the point of Lydon.
Good memory: Public Image Limited being pelted with bottles whilst supporting James at Alton Towers. Those were the days. You looked up, and it was like that scene from 300, but with plastic bottles instead of arrows.
‘Punk’ was nominally about rebelling and being individualistic.
So, we had lots of people dressing in a similar ripped-up style, most of them simply because other people were doing it.
You ask, is Lydon punk? I ask, was PUNK punk?
More to teh point, were the Clash punk?
No, says I. They were the Monkees of punk.
I’m pretty sure the Sex Pistols were the Monkees of punk. The first Clash album’s alright though.
John Lyndon is yet another example of how greedy celebs are. I don’t get it, surely he has enough money already? Yet another sell-out tosser in my opinion.