Rooftop pools spill onto the streets below, cars fall down into large holes in the ground that they swerve to avoid.  In the background, there is a catchy musical riff playing, one that, to those of a certain age, seems a bit familiar.

The name of the tune is “Pressure Drop”, and it was a song, originally recorded by a Jamaican reggae band called Toots And The Maytals in 1969, covered by the Clash in 1978, and also by the Specials in 1995.  If you recognize it, though, it’s most likely the Clash version you recognize. 

And it’s the Clash version on the commercial, too.  In case you didn’t recognize it, the good folks at Nissan thoughtfully wrote it out on a quick closeup of the car’s sound system for you.

This isn’t the first time the Clash, the almost quintessential anti-establishment punk band from the late seventies and early eighties, has flirted with commercialism.  Some years ago, when Joe Strummer was still alive and theoretically okayed it, Cadillac used the Clash’s post-apocalyptic anthem, “London Calling”, for one of its commercials.  (Cadillac did not use, it must be noted, “Brand New Cadillac”, which was the VERY NEXT SONG on the London Calling album.)

Now, the question for me isn’t so much, “Why would the Clash sell out?” although that is a legitimate question; the real question for me is “Whatever gave these car companies the idea that aging punks, like myself, are willing to buy their outrageously high-end vehicles?”

We have reached a time in history when people in my age demographic (and rock demographic) are reaching our mid-life crises, I suppose.  But aging Springsteen fans and aging metal fans and aging rockabillies are also the same age, yet the advertisers are fixated on punk rock, the most anti-establishment version of rock there ever was.

Why is that?  Is it because aging punkers went into advertising and media, while metal fans became carpenters and truck drivers, Springsteen fans went into teaching math, and southern rockabillies are even now government bureaucrats?
Stranger things have been known to happen, I suppose. Or maybe they were just looking for a catchy tune dating roughly from the late 70’s.

It is possible ... just possible ... that the ‘advertising world’ has done its homework and discovered, to my personal horror, that aging punks do indeed have more disposable income than the other iterations of late seventies-early eighties’ rock and roll fans have.  That they’re targeting us because ... we do have the money and inclination to buy Cadillacs and high-end Nissans and whatever else they’re using our g-g-generation’s music to sell.

If this is true, as we move into later middle age and the Golden Years, and we still have this income, this will become increasingly depressing and embarassing.  Will they use the Talking Heads to sell denture cream? The Cramps to do PSAs about the benefits of regular prostate exams?  The Sex Pistols to sell Viagra? (All of these might make some sense, actually). 

And of course, the Clash can be used to hawk everything from retirement communities in Europe (”Safe European Home”) to the incredible size of modern Hannaford and Shaws stores (”I’m Lost in the Supermarket”).

Hey, maybe I’m in the wrong line of work ...