Velvet Underground's Lou Reed sang Walk On The Wild Side in the early 70's and an ad agent sold this music to Honda for a commercial for their scooter in 1985.
A remarkable bit of salesmanship - if you've ever heard the song! Great piece of music but the lyrics are a little advanced for a gentleman from Japan. He probably never heard the whole song.
Found these comments about the commercial:
For this gritty, almost avant-garde spot, set in pre-gentrified Lower Manhattan with every art film trope you could imagine might have put considerable demands on his charm.” Instead, Bridges recalls, when the commercial was finished playing the man from Honda broke the tension by saying, “We need to be THAT scooter company.”
The spot made a huge splash on Madison Avenue. Its influence could be seen all over the next generation of commercials. But it didn’t sell many scooters.
It took a lot more than a Lou Reed song to sell scooters as 'cool' to young Americans.
Still does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... DLAM48TmJQ
1985 Honda TV Spot Velvet Underground!
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