So by now I think everybody has seen the new ad for the Ipod nano with video. It’s a catchy little jingle called “Bourgeois Shangri-La” by Miss Li.

I’m guessing nobody at Apple bothered to check the lyrics to Bourgeois Shangri-La.

“Keep you locked in a shopping cart
A Bourgeois Shangri-La”

and

“House, and a boat and a great shiny car
Things just to prove you go far
So’s the streamer watching TV cute little dog
Perfect in your shallow Bourgeois”

And to top it off, Bourgeois is defined as “(1.) A person belonging to the middle class. (2.) A person whose attitudes and behavior are marked by conformity to the standards and conventions of the middle class. (3.) In Marxist theory, a member of the property-owning class; a capitalist.”

So either Apple was intentionally poking fun at itself and its’ rabid fans, or they just went with this song because it sounded pretty. Either way, it’s hilarious.

But the all time winner for missing the point has to be Mercedes-Benz for having the unmitigated balls to use Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” in one of their commercials. According to Wikipedia,
“Joplin wrote “Mercedes Benz” together with the poet Michael McClure and Bob Neuwirth, as a critical social commentary on how people relate happiness to money and material possessions. The song was originally written as something of a negative commentary about materialistic individuals who place too much value on items like a Mercedes-Benz.”

And what does Mercedez-Benz do with it?

Blasphemy. Blasphemy of the highest order. (Lyrics to Mercedes Benz.)