Has anyone seen the new Specsavers advert “featuring” Edith Piaf?
In it, she sings probably her most famous song, “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”. The subtitles show an incorrect translation of the French lyrics, saying that her only regret is not having bought glasses at Specsavers.
This is a song about and performed by a chronic alcoholic and drug user looking back on her life, and saying that she regrets nothing; that all the pain was worth it for her to become the person she now is. It is poignant and heartfelt.
Specsaver’s hijacking of the song and the woman to offload a couple of pairs of glasses is, in my opinion, beyond reprehensible. Aside from the fact that it takes the personal, emotional core of the song and castrates it for the sake of corporate “humour”, did any of the firm’s copywriters do any research on the woman whatsoever? If they had, they would have known that from the ages of three to seven, Piaf was blind as a result of the disease Keratitis. That’s right, Specsavers have tastefully chosen to parody a dead alcoholic who had no sight as a child.
How could this ad have been passed as suitable for broadcast? How could noone have objected to it? Using a dead person to sell a product is tantamount to graverobbery. It’s just as classy as Benetton’s ad featuring a young man dying of AIDS.
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I think that controversy is a wonderful thing. But in the hands of advertisers, it is always suspect. There is always the ulterior motive, the hidden agenda. Everything they show you is designed to get you to do something. To not only buy a product, but to buy into a lifestyle (as Naomi Klein brilliantly argued in “No Logo”). Slogans like ”Drink Coke” are not suggestions; they are orders, screamed at you from every poster and billboard, every television, every radio.
I feel embarrassed if I am watching a movie or programme with someone and the ads come on. It’s like a group of corporate idiots have marched into the room and started barking commands at you and yours. I find ads depressing in general; when the local companies have Christmas “all wrapped up” (brilliant) and multinationals are using Edith Piaf, there is little creativity in the divide.
I’m not getting my anarchist on; far from it. I know that advertising is a necessary evil. Much brilliant creative work is funded by it. But when it’s so evil it can reanimate the corpses of our dearly departed, it must be stopped.
It brings to mind Bill Hicks’ famous words about advertisers :
