10-03-2005, 05:33 AM
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#21 (permalink)
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Devoted
Donor
Location: New England
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Ah, I remember the one I was thinking of: Chumbawamba's song "Pass it Along" was adopted by General Motors. If you only know Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, the group is more anarchastic-punk than pop. The lyrics themselves aren't the inappropriate part...
Quote:
Ah, where do you want to go today?
Ah, somewhere, somewhere, you can never take me
Ah, where do you want to go today?
Ah, somewhere, somewhere, you can never take me
Pass it along, sign on, switch off
Pass it along, sign on, switch off
Send this song to twenty people
Add your name, don't break the cycle
Pass it along by word of mouse
Save the world, don't leave the house
(Repeat chorus)
So here's your final resting place
Your heaven is protected by security gates
Shut out the world, it's getting worse
Save yourself, don't leave the house
(Repeat chorus)
Brave new world, population one, just pass it along
(Repeats)
Pass it along
(Repeats)
Switch off
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...but the funny part is how they used the money.
Quote:
GM thought nothing more after handing over a cheque for $70,000 to the band for the use of the song. But behind the scenes, Chumbawamba were negotiating with anti-corporate activists to see if they would take the fee and put it to use. The band contacted CorpWatch, a US campaign group aimed at 'holding corporations accountable', to see if it would 'put the money to good anti-capitalist use if we accepted the ad'.
CorpWatch had no trouble in agreeing. Chumbawamba vocalist Alice Nutter then sent an email 'in solidarity' to IndyMedia, a radical global network, to enquire if it would accept half of the money. 'We're offering this money to you because the work you do and information you supply is invaluable,' she wrote.
After much anguished internal debate, IndyMedia also agreed to accept. As a result, the two leading campaign groups are now spending GM's money to mount an aggressive information and environmental campaign - against GM.
'We're planning on using some of the money to document some of the social and environmental impacts of General Motors itself,' Joshua Karliner, executive director of CorpWatch, told The Observer.
'It's known for resisting the kinds of change in production that would assist in reducing climate change, and for helping debunk the science of global warming. If the company knew how its fee was being used, I'd imagine it would make executives squirm in their big comfortable leather chairs.'
The company last night said it was unaware of the work it was financing. Dayna Hart, publicist for Pontiac at GM, said: 'I didn't know that. I did know [the band] had quite a political background in England. That's very interesting.'
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