Fun with advertising.
This is a Pepsi commercial:
The song is "Ca Plane Pour Moi," performed by The President's of The United States of America. But that's not the version I remember. That tune goes with some very different words. I remember it as "Jet Boy Jet Girl" by Elton Montello.
According to my research (which consisted of consulting this article), Jet Boy Jet Girl is the original, but the lyrics (which can be found here), were a little too colorful for radio play, so an Elton Montello band member came up with alternate lyrics and, under the name Plastic Bertrand, recorded the song with inoffensively meaningless lyrics as "Ca Plane Pour Moi," which became a minor worldwide smash (peaking at 39 on Billboard's Hot 100), and which the Presidents of the United States of America covered on the Pepsi commercial.
You can listen to a snippet of Elton Motello's studio version here. When Elton Montello broke up, the author of this masterpiece, Alan Ward, went on to form the band The Damned (featuring Captain Sensible), whose poorly recorded live version of "Jet Boy Jet Girl" is available on YouTube, and is included here for your amusement:
Someone involved with this commercial had to know where the tune came from, but I expect it wasn't the guys at Pepsi who pull down the big bucks. Now their fine product is firmly linked in my mind with the words:
I don't know why, but I find stuff like this terribly amusing.
I think I'll have a Coke.
The song is "Ca Plane Pour Moi," performed by The President's of The United States of America. But that's not the version I remember. That tune goes with some very different words. I remember it as "Jet Boy Jet Girl" by Elton Montello.
According to my research (which consisted of consulting this article), Jet Boy Jet Girl is the original, but the lyrics (which can be found here), were a little too colorful for radio play, so an Elton Montello band member came up with alternate lyrics and, under the name Plastic Bertrand, recorded the song with inoffensively meaningless lyrics as "Ca Plane Pour Moi," which became a minor worldwide smash (peaking at 39 on Billboard's Hot 100), and which the Presidents of the United States of America covered on the Pepsi commercial.
You can listen to a snippet of Elton Motello's studio version here. When Elton Montello broke up, the author of this masterpiece, Alan Ward, went on to form the band The Damned (featuring Captain Sensible), whose poorly recorded live version of "Jet Boy Jet Girl" is available on YouTube, and is included here for your amusement:
Someone involved with this commercial had to know where the tune came from, but I expect it wasn't the guys at Pepsi who pull down the big bucks. Now their fine product is firmly linked in my mind with the words:
Jet boy jet girl
I'm gonna take you 'round the world
Jet boy I'm gonna make you penetrate
I'm gonna make you be a girl
Ooooohhhh
He gives me head
I don't know why, but I find stuff like this terribly amusing.
I think I'll have a Coke.
Labels: Bad Advertising, Business, Entertainment, Music
posted by Jack at 3/06/2007 06:00:00 PM
7 Comments:
I love punk music but I wasn't a big enough fan back in the day to remember any of this.
On another note, I just saw a commercial on television which reminded me of your comment on my blog this morning so I came upstairs to look all this stuff up. Voila! Here is is.
Wang Chi's House of Pancakes IS a full-service blog.
Hmmm....the thinking person's consumer advisor. I'm sticking with Coke too.
That Jet Boy Jet Girl song has been used in something else I've seen before... can't remember if it was another commercial or a movie or what. I probably blocked it out of my mind when I heard the lyrics "I'm gonna make you be a girl Ooooohhhh He gives me head."
(((shivers)))
Now I finally got a chance to ready the whole post. I guess Pepsi is for a real different market. Did you just change this post? It seems different than it was a bit ago.
I never have liked Pepsi, or any of their marketing campaigns. After this post, I'm thinking they must be just plain idiots. Of course, only the tiniest percentage of the population will remember this song in such detail. . . .
Laurie,
Yup. We got it all. What you want when you want it.
Lorna,
We at the House of Pancakes are generally too drunk to think much, but we do our best.
Jen T.,
You know you love it.
Susan,
All posts are subject to revision for content within the first couple hours, and for spelling and grammar indefinitely. When I'm drunk--which is to say when I post--I tend to write things that some people might find insensitive or offensive. Since, in most cases, I have no desire to offend, I tend to go back and revise.
Laura,
I like the commercial. I like the tune. And I find the association hilarious. but I'm funny that way.
I agree. Hilarious!
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