Will Jack White Teach the World to Drink Coca-Cola?
According to a published report on NME.com, Jack White has been in talks with iconic red and white logoed beverage maker Coca-Cola to write a new song to be used in their next big advertising campaign. There has been no official statement made by either White or Coca-Cola. Stay tuned…
Just a word of advice to Coca-Cola, do NOT advertise the campaign with balloons. Simply a suggestion.
1. Josh | 6:28 pm on August 25th, 2005
please tell me that this is a joke…
2. Anonymous | 6:58 pm on August 25th, 2005
Oh no! Oh my God! Jack is selling out! I’m going to burn all of my records now because this means their music automatically sucks!! Yeah that was sarcasm for all of you idiots out there.
3. Anonymous | 11:49 pm on August 26th, 2005
Jack loves Coca-Cola, so I can see him doing this.
4. Anonymous | 5:53 pm on August 28th, 2005
This actually IS the definition of “selling out.” Bands who let a corporation use their song in a commercial in order to pay rent and eat is one thing, but writing or making available material to one of the world most notorious multi-nationals is disgusting. Please educate yourself people: http://killercoke.org/
5. Anonymous | 2:38 pm on August 29th, 2005
Hahaha, I just love all of these 20 something year olds thinking they can save the world by trying to fight against “the man”. When you grow up you won’t care anymore, because you’ll realize you need “the man” and no matter what you do to try to fight against these big corporations, it won’t change things. Aw the idealism of youth how lovely, thinking you can change the world. Naivete is more like it.
6. Anonymous | 2:41 pm on August 29th, 2005
Who’s to say what the exact definition of selling out is anyway? So many people have their own views of what it means. I don’t see how writing a song for Coke is any worse than lending a pre-existing song to them.
7. Anonymous | 3:17 pm on August 29th, 2005
Ha ha I love cynical 30 something year olds who grew up to not give a shit about anything but the almighty dollar.
8. Anonymous | 5:38 pm on August 29th, 2005
All I’m saying is one of these days your feelings will probably change.
9. Anonymous | 9:08 pm on August 29th, 2005
Selling out is a lot more black and white than it is grey. Fugazi is an admirable example for all bands.
Selling a pre-existing song and providing new material IS the same thing. Both involve slippery slopes and moral compromises. What I was saying is that bands with no guarantees of financial security have some moral leeway (not much …) if they choose to sell a song to survive as a band or to pay bills, but, hyper-successful darlings like the White Stripes are just prostituting themselves at the end of the day in this case, regardless of special affinities for certain colors etc. I for one assumed that Jack White’s ideals and politics were just a tad more progressive than to willingly debase himself by supporting a company like Coca-Cola. Why should we care about the human and economic rights of workers in the developing world right? It’s just a cute place to get married in.
And, as for being idealistic, unless you consider self-centeredness, narcissism, and a crude ignorance about the state of world affairs, to be a mark of maturity, I would say you are seriously misinformed. I also suspect that you have not yet reached your twenties chronologically or if you have, you have certainly not reached that age mentally.
10. Anonymous | 12:12 am on August 30th, 2005
Well, my definition of selling out is different. I believe when a band makes an artistic compromise in order to make a profit,(i.e. changing their sound, image, or writing songs they don’t feel comfortable writing just because a record company wants them to or because they want to sell more records) then that is selling out. Jack probably doesn’t know about the workers in the third-world or else he wouldn’t do it. Look at it this way, this is basically Coke’s way of calling Jack the voice of a generation. He was the first one they considered to write their new theme song, this means they had enough faith in his talent to write a song that will not only trump the original, but a song they could continue using 50 years from now. Just for a second put yourself in Jack’s shoes and imagine how incredibly flattering that must have been for him and how honored he was. You shouldn’t pass judgment on him until you know why he came to this decision, because I doubt it was strictly motivated by money for the sheer fact he barely even spends the money he already has, what would he do with more? I’m tired of people getting their kicks by feeling morally superior to others without even trying to see things from the other side. Jack isn’t going to perform the song or appear in the ad, the song doesn’t even have the word Coke in it. He just wrote down some words and chords, whether Coke will use it or not remains to be seen. If they don’t like it, then that will be that. Jack isn’t going to keep writing songs until he writes one they like. What it all boils down to is that Jack is still making the music he wants to make, he still has control and neither one of these things will change. He will always do things his own way without any record company telling him what to do and without being effected by popular opinion. The White Stripes are truly independent and that’s incredibly rare for a band at their level. As long as Jack manages to keep things that way, then I will continue to have respect for him.
11. Anonymous | 12:51 am on August 30th, 2005
Read his latest message. He’s more concerned with the morality of “hipsters” than the morality of Coca-Cola.
12. Anonymous | 1:23 am on August 30th, 2005
Well he’ll address the Coke issue in due time. It hasn’t even been made official yet. Look guys, no matter how you slice it most big corporations are shady, yet all of us support one or another in some way. There is no way around it, so unless you’ve never drank Coke, used Microsoft, shopped at Wal-Mart, or driven a Ford lately,(stick any other big corp name here) then you have no room to talk. People need to quit being so self-righteous.
13. Anonymous | 2:02 am on August 30th, 2005
‘Jack probably doesn’t know about the workers in the third-world or else he wouldn’t do it.’
I would have told him, but I didn’t want to sound like a self-righteous hipster looking to feel superior.
14. Anonymous | 8:52 pm on September 1st, 2005
oh right, throwing around eupemisms and meaningless irrelevant labels always make one appear very intelligent. Note: Announcing your own ignorance and stupidity and narrow world-view is cool!
15. Anonymous | 8:53 pm on September 1st, 2005
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/2005_08_01_archivenews.htm#112548494633832977
Make some inroads in your “ignorance and stupidity and quite possibly your racism.
16. Anonymous | 8:43 am on September 23rd, 2005
all the big celebrady did it so why not jack they pay beyonce 5 million dollar just to drink the coca-cola dont be jeolous because you dont have a life you not even his really fan or you be happy for him so he be more famous and make some money
17. Anonymous | 8:47 am on September 23rd, 2005
they pay beyonce 5 million they should pay him more money those ou dont like it are you going to give him money no.why should he throw is apportunity to blow it for you .you live in the trailer.you dont got nothing but talking shit
18. yupyup | 5:07 pm on September 20th, 2007
COCA COLA is tasty
19. yupyup | 5:08 pm on September 20th, 2007
GENE SIMMONS IS A SELL OUT not jack white