Jaguar, in using the CLASH song London Calling as an advertising jingle for their latest automotive line, obviously means to appeal to the people who grew up in the 1980's. My girlfriend asked me sarcastically, "does it give you a warm and fuzzy feeling to know you are part of a target audience?"
I answered, "No, but I get a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing I'm a target." When the CLASH released "London Calling"in 1979, my L.A. punk friends and I swooned over the menacing sound ("London calling to the faraway towns, now that war is declared-and battle come down"). The song was one of the band's most chilling works. Ominous and dark, it foretold of the Western world collapsing in a spasm of war and out of control technologies, it addressed our fears of government repression ("London calling, see we ain't got no swing, 'cept for the ring of that truncheon thing").

Ford Motor Company's Jaguar North America unit launched a July 2002 summer ad campaign called London Calling. The ad firm handling the account would not disclose the cost of the campaign targeting "a younger audience." But George Ayres, vice president of marketing for Jaguar, said the 2002 budget "isn't necessarily bigger" than the $66.7 million spent in 2001. In the "London Calling" television advertisement there are images of a quaint London that reinforce a tourist's perception of British heritage... Big Ben, the Parliament building, etc. The latest model Jaguar moves slowly down cobblestone streets. A pretty young woman is seen in an old style red phone booth as the silver colored Jaguar glides by. The musical backdrop to this facade is none other than the
CLASH song, with Joe Strummer's gravely panicked voice wailing the refrain.

In an interview posted on "stummersite.com", Joe Strummer admitted the band sold the rights to their song to Jaguar... here's how Strummer put it. "Yeah, I agreed to that. We get hundreds of requests for that and turn 'em all down. But I just thought Jaguar...yeah. If you're in a group and you make it together, then everyone deserves something. Especially twenty-odd years after the fact. It just seems churlish for a writer to refuse to have their music used on an advert and so I figured out, only advertise the things you think are cool. That's why we dissed Coors and Miller. We've turned down loads of money. Millions over the years. But sometimes you have to earn a bit, so everybody gets some."

The incendiary antiwar lyrics of I'm so bored with the U.S.A. (Yankee dollar talk to the dictators of the world, in fact it's giving orders, and they can't afford to miss a word!), were on the lips of a new generation yearning for change. When the CLASH sang Remote Control, hundreds of thousands took it to heart (big business it don't like you, it don't like the things you do, you got no money, you got no power, they think you're useless, and so you are, punks!). By the time their second album, Give 'em enough rope, was released in 1979 they were becoming big news in the U.S. They made things difficult for themselves when in 1980 they released Sandinista, a double album that extended a hand of support to the Nicaraguan revolution while the Reagan White House was busy trying to destroy it. Over the years the band cranked out a steady stream of rock anthems that were like battle cries against the status quo... Garageland, Career Opportunities, Capital Radio, Washington Bullets, Clampdown, Guns of Brixton, and The Call Up.

The point really is, the music of the CLASH served as a backdrop for the turmoil of the late 1970's and early 80's. They sang their opposition to war, police violence, the arms race... and we believed them. Their music provided the necessary strength to keep resisting the madness all around us. In 1977, when the band first stormed it's way into public consciousness with a rough and tumble, jangly, take no prisoners approach to rock music... thousands of young musicians and fans were inspired to follow suit. We were going to change the world. The snotty, brash, and anti-authoritarian punk movement was born. Was that legacy blown to smithereens by the simple act of the CLASH allowing one of their sharpest songs to become nothing more than a jingle for luxury cars? Was punk just a charade orchestrated and manipulated by unscrupulous businessmen? Was it all for nothing?

We shouldn't condemn a movement based on the folly of its adherents or detractors. People have been selling out their beliefs ever since Judas accepted 30 pieces of silver as payment for his betrayal. Any movement should be critiqued based on the strength of its principles... not its followers. CRASS, another extremely influencial English punk band, hit the nail right on the head with the lyrics to their self released 1978 song, Punk is Dead. "CBS promote the CLASH, but it ain't for revolution, it's just for cash. Punk became a fashion just like Hippy used to be, and it ain't got a thing to do with you or me!" The CLASH notwithstanding, punk actually stood for something, and many still embrace those original core ethics. A healthy distrust of the rich and powerful, opposition to conformity and apathy, a commitment to freedom of expression, and a belief that we need to be more than a witness when it comes to life and history. I still have the button I wore on my leather jacket back in 1977. It reads, "Can't buy my soul."

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