Morrissey allows John Lewis to use Smiths track for Christmas ad campaign

[Black Cloud]

Smiler's posts made me watch it!

The singing girl is very nasal.

I don't know why anybody is surprised that they allowed the song to be used. They can't get by on their looks anymore, can they?

[Bluebirds]

Just seen the advert. It's hardly Guinness and Leftfield is it?

[Media Whore]

The campaign works.

That will be my face come 25 December.

[Uncleskinny]

Johnny defends use of the song in the advert...

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...ristmas-advert

[Peterb]

I read it differently. The song is sung in the Mothers voice "Good times for a change......" and is sung straight whilst we see her sensitive alienated son. He is the boy that sole her youth and looks and trapped her in a loveless joyless home (.....see the life i've had....) She loves him but more and more she resents and regrets him, (...for once in my life....) his father isn't interested in either of them. The boy is unhappy and lonely growing up isloated and introverted (just like his younger brother) under the shadow of the black cloud of his Mothers depression. All he wants for Christmas is to see his mommy happy (unlike a normal happy child who would want a bike and an xbox please) and for her to smile at least just once. He excitedly waits for the day when he could maybe lift her selfish mood for a moment as she silently looks at the wall and pleads for more out of life than this (...please please please....) but unfortunately no one will get what they want for Christmas this year, not in this house as it is unlikely that the festively wrapped small box in the childs arms will contain either a time machine or a machine gun. Another disappointing Christmas from John Lewis.
Ho Ho Ho Ho Homelessness.

Hey Smiler, I think your interpretation tells informs us as to how interesting and inventive you are. I'm afraid I see advertisers as a notch above pederasts and do not believe they would have the nouse to put together a short film as complex as you interpret it.

[esskay]

I'm against bands selling their music for money to advertising companies, and it's sad they've done this. It is some compensation that it is a cover in the current ad, but every time I listen to "Please Please" from now on part of my brain will think of John Lewis, and that will sully the song to some extent.

However, I don't know how many people here are aware of this, but The Smiths let "How Soon is Now?" be used in an ad for Pepe Jeans back in 1987. Here is the ad on YouTube.

[everydayslikesunday]

I saw the advert for the first time last night and I liked it. It will open more peoples eye's to the wonders of The Smiths. Plus John Lewis is my favourite store (after Ann Summers obviously)

[everydayslikesunday]

On a crappy local Oxford radio station today they played the full version of Please, Please, Please from the John Lewis advert. Does this mean it is going to be released as a Christmas single? Wouldn't it be ironic if the only Morrissey/Marr song ever to top the charts was a cover version Although personally I think this version of the song is very weak, the singer has no sincerity in her voice plus the music score is lacking any body. Still if it gets people talking about The Smiths then who am I to complain

[Worm]

Adorable ad. The twist would have worked even better if the kid had opened the door to his parents' bedroom to give a big gift to his two Moms.

[Bluebirds]

On a crappy local Oxford radio station today they played the full version of Please, Please, Please from the John Lewis advert. Does this mean it is going to be released as a Christmas single? Wouldn't it be ironic if the only Morrissey/Marr song ever to top the charts was a cover version Although personally I think this version of the song is very weak, the singer has no sincerity in her voice plus the music score is lacking any body. Still if it gets people talking about The Smiths then who am I to complain

Been there done that: Mark Ronson ft Daniel Merriweather, Stop Me..... oh it got to number two. My bad

[everydayslikesunday]

Been there done that: Mark Ronson ft Daniel Merriweather, Stop Me..... oh it got to number two. My bad

Hi Bluebirds, I had actually forgotten about that piece of poo. I'm glad it didn't get to number 1.

[swift eclipse]

I'm against bands selling their music for money to advertising companies, and it's sad they've done this. It is some compensation that it is a cover in the current ad, but every time I listen to "Please Please" from now on part of my brain will think of John Lewis, and that will sully the song to some extent.

However, I don't know how many people here are aware of this, but The Smiths let "How Soon is Now?" be used in an ad for Pepe Jeans back in 1987. Here is the ad on YouTube.

And this commercial for Nissan as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cOxTHgZWSM

[swift eclipse]

Johnny defends use of the song in the advert...

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereven...ristmas-advert

Johnny not so subtley reminding us that he wrote it and therefore can do as he pleases, but at this point I feel I have a right to some claim of ownership, too. That may sound odd but I bet it's a fair assessment to say that 25 years on I have listened to Smiths songs more times since their release than Morrissey and Marr put together. These have become our songs and there's an emotional investment involved on the part of the listener that often gets overlooked in the name of money. This said, it doesn't surprise me at all because they've done it before, but I found the commercial lacking and the cover version even worse. Frankly, I'm just glad on some level that there are still people who dislike "selling out" in this way, considering that the view that selling out is a bad thing practically no longer exists. It's all just so tacky and that is something the Smiths never were.

[CrystalGeezer]

Johnny not so subtley reminding us that he wrote it and therefore can do as he pleases, but at this point I feel I have a right to some claim of ownership, too. That may sound odd but I bet it's a fair assessment to say that 25 years on I have listened to Smiths songs more times since their release than Morrissey and Marr put together. These have become our songs and there's an emotional investment involved on the part of the listener that often gets overlooked in the name of money. This said, it doesn't surprise me at all because they've done it before, but I found the commercial lacking and the cover version even worse. Frankly, I'm just glad on some level that there are still people who dislike "selling out" in this way, considering that the view that selling out is a bad thing practically no longer exists. It's all just so tacky and that is something the Smiths never were.

[swift eclipse]

And to think I was so nice to you when you were sick a while back.

I don't understand your derision.

[CrystalGeezer]

And to think I was so nice to you when you were sick a while back.

I don't understand your derision.

Thanks for being nice to me when I was sick. I just can't wrap my mind around the idea that anyone other than the creator of the song owns it. Morrissey, Marr, whoever doesn't owe anyone anything.

[swift eclipse]

Thanks for being nice to me when I was sick. I just can't wrap my mind around the idea that anyone other than the creator of the song owns it. Morrissey, Marr, whoever doesn't owe anyone anything.

Glad your feeling better. Thanks for letting me know your point of view. Of course legalistically you are right about ownership.

I was being philosophical, I suppose, just kind of riffing. I see it as how people react to their favorite brands of things...like shoes or cars. They become so passionate about them that a bond is created so much so that if that company does something inconsistent with the brand it can disturb the relationship and create uncertainty in the customer. To me, songs and artists can be even more important than these other more tangible possessions so similar feelings can be stirred up when art and commerce meet. But that's just the way it goes.

[CrystalGeezer]

Glad your feeling better. Thanks for letting me know your point of view. Of course legalistically you are right about ownership.

I was being philosophical, I suppose, just kind of riffing. I see it as how people react to their favorite brands of things...like shoes or cars. They become so passionate about them that a bond is created so much so that if that company does something inconsistent with the brand it can disturb the relationship and create uncertainty in the customer. To me, songs and artists can be even more important than these other more tangible possessions so similar feelings can be stirred up when art and commerce meet. But that's just the way it goes.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. Sorry for the crazy stir, i'd do that if you were in the room sitting next to me and you'd know I wasn't being a mega bitch.

[swift eclipse]

Yeah, I get what you're saying. Sorry for the crazy stir, i'd do that if you were in the room sitting next to me and you'd know I wasn't being a mega bitch.

That's cool, I understand.

Thanks CrystalGeezer.

[Bluebirds]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15825050

Free advertising on the Beeb. You couldn't make it up.

And a little history about "our song"

Smiths soundtrack
Please Please Please started life as merely the B-side of William, It Was Really Nothing but is as beloved of Smiths fans as any of Morrissey and Marr's better-known songs.

In its original form, it's barely longer than the John Lewis ad - two short sparse verses embellished with a dainty mandolin riff.

Versions of the track have been used on soundtracks. In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, an instrumental version underscores three school truants staring at canvases by Seurat and Kandinsky in the Art Institute of Chicago. The Smiths original plays under Maggie and Andy's estrangement in the Christmas episode of Extras. A version by Clayhill is at the end of Shane Meadows' This Is England.

The John Lewis version, by Slow Moving Millie, is one of many in the fragile, breathy style currently in vogue among advertisers. Other artists to sing the song include the Dream Academy, Muse and the Deftones.

Alan Connor