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Joya Bravo's McDonald's Commercial
Whenever hip hop gets appropriated by corporate marketing schemes, it always leaves me with an uneasy feeling. This apparently is not a universally shared feeling, as I recall that our earlier discussion on Sprite's Voltron rap campaign had its fair share of defenders. McDonald's relentless efforts to market its robust lineup of artery clogging offerings to a generation of hip hop fans, however, have been egregious enough over the years to upset even those fans who are typically unfazed by the concept of "selling out." The low point of Micky Dee's relationship with hip hop came, undoubtedly, in 2005 with its offer to pay rappers $5 every time they mentioned the brand in one of their songs.
I can't say that all is forgiven with McDonald's latest campaign, built around Joya Bravo's incredible Dollar Van Demo freestyle (which we featured last month), but I have to admit I find it significantly more palatable than the company's previous efforts. As large segments of the music industry continue their archaic modes of operation in the face of a rapidly changing market, pushing the same retread acts in the hopes of maximizing ever diminishing returns, it's increasingly harder for someone like Joya Bravo to get any sort of exposure. Bravo doesn't seem to fit into the mold of an artist that labels traditionally like to throw their promotional efforts behind, which doesn't leave many other outlets for her. Were this to involve a more established rapper I have no doubt my opinion on the matter would be quite different, but if corporate sponsorship is what it takes to make it as a new artist these days, I suppose schilling for McDonald's is better than having to go work for them.
Just don't let me catch Malice and Pusha hanging out with Ronald again. That, I can't forgive.
(And Dollar Van, if you're reading this, I'd love to hear how much McDonald's is paying out for something like this.)
Update - I received the following from Dollar Van Demos last night:
You really hit on the head in terms of how/what an artist can do (or for that matter web series can do) to get exposure, make a living, etc. There's no labels so there's no promotion so there's very little chance of getting any club to book you. It's a vicious circle that you know has swallowed up many talented performers in all genres. We think we came up with a innovative plan to use sponsors to license our concept to fund the production of more Demos -- McD's had rigorous requirements that Joya & Wordspit qualified and then they went and made the commercial (Dollar Van Demos did not direct/produce the spots -- an agency from Chicago did everything). Dollar Van Demos was compensated and we intend to reinvest this money into our business to make more videos. You should know that we do not cost the performers anything for their videos other than their time -- something pretty much unheard of in this business.
If you haven't already, please go check out Dollar Van Demo's website. There's some great stuff on there.
1/07/2010 3:30:51 PM posted by Fresh