Absolut Ad Featuring Joy Division Song Rekindles Long Lost Sense Of Art-Vs.-Commerce Outrage

I’m not entirely sure why the Absolut Vodka commercial featuring a version of Joy Division’s “Ceremony” bothers me as much as it does. I’d thought I’d gotten over my outrage at the notion of musicians “selling out” to ad firms pretty soon after Neil Young sent up a final gasp of indignation with the great spoof video for “This Note’s For You.” What was the last instance I remember upsetting me? The Beatles’ “Revolution” in that Nike ad, maybe. By the time Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” hit that yuppie Volkswagen spot I was just like, Oh, that would be a fun, driving around with some friends listening to that song. (And then maybe a nice glass of rose.) And when the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” welcomed everyone to the dawn of Cisco computer network’s new age or whatever, you know, fine.

But this Absolut ad sucks. Every time it comes on, it just bums me out. Even though all those bottles hanging in the forest look really cool, I think. Hearing “Ceremony” in this context just seems very, very wrong. Maybe its because Ian Curtis is dead, and there’s no way to be sure he would have been okay with the usage? But Nick Drake was dead long before that Volkswagen ad, too. I guess it just has to do with the supreme awesomeness of “Ceremony.” And how the song does sort of seem, well, sacred in a way, since Curtis died so soon after recording it. (And probably also because it’s called “Ceremony.” Duh.) This new version, by the Brooklyn band Fall On Your Sword, hews very closely to the one New Order did soon after Curtis’ death. Too closely for comfort, I guess. It’s been covered lots of times before, by Radiohead and Xiu Xiu and, best I think, by Galaxie 500, who slowed it way down, allowing for full reverent appreciation of its breathtakingly beautiful melody. I’m all for the covers. The more people that get to know this song the better. But please, keep it out of television commercials from now on. Thanks.