Cee-Lo, Janelle Monae, Patrick Stump, & More Sing for Coke

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Pepsi may have nabbed Bob Dylan and will.i.am for their Super Bowl-endorsed advertising campaign, but Coke (my choice Cola) has, once again, out-done them. Although Pepsi’s commercial with Britney Spears, Beyonce, and Pink singing Queen’s “We Will Rock You” in gladiator outfits was pretty fantastic. My favorite ad ever.

Good times. I also love YouTube’s related videos feature: it linked me to this hilarious MADtv classic. But I digress..

Coke commissioned Butch Walker, Cee-Lo Green, and Polow Da Don to produce and remix a track for their new advertising campaign, “Open Happiness.” This producing mega-team invited Janelle Monae, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, Panic at the Disco’s Brendon Urie, and Gym Class Heroes’ Travis McCoy to do their thing on this track. Cee-Lo, of course, gives some Gnarls Barkley on the track.

“Open Happiness” disguises itself as an uplifting, inspiring charity single. It has all of the let’s-get-together-and-change-the-world lyrics that most charity singles do: “it’s a brand new day has begun…do you feel it to?” “Lift me up… so I can be someone new” I can go on and on. But I guess the genius behind all of this is that is isn’t a charity single, but devilishly clever marketing. They sneak in the “open up a little happiness today,” aka some Coke, in the assemblage of the Kum Ba Yah.
[rating:62/100]

by Luis Tovar on March 13, 2009 ‡ 0 reactions