Definition – Social commentary has run amok on social media. Yes, the people have spoken and
are making their comments known. They are speaking back to, “Big Daddy” advertisers and are sounding off. These are the – Ad Vultures – who hang mercilessly over the carcasses of advertising campaigns and pick the meat off the bones of big budgeted ads.

THE TRIVAGO GUY – Life On The Outside

Where do I start with this guy? Twitter is having a field day with this guy and rightly so. It’s one of the only places where the people can sound off in real time about the shabbily kept guy who knows the inside track of hotel rooms.  I have a theory and I’m not alone. This poor guy is the by-product of a disastrous, hateful relationship and the only place where he can find solace is in a hotel room. Maybe he is in the middle of two hateful relationships – who can really tell? But he looks drunk out of his mind and has a torn down look and in a few commercials seems to be missing a belt.

Trivago guy knows all about hotel room prices and where you can get the best price thanks to a handy new website. Despite his hobo like appearance he seems to have discriminating taste in his temporary décor.  He knows about the stars and seems to care about the quality of the rooms he calls home. Then after he delivers his pitch he shuffles out of view back to his busy day of avoiding the people he loves – and guzzling Jack Daniels.

Who does this pitch appeal to? Seriously…..

Here’s what the people are saying !!

On August 24, 2014 the public was calling out for a makeover. Among the popular items on the list was a belt.  This has led to some supporters of the Trivago Guy and they say, “Don’t Buckle Under Pressure !!!”. There’s stories of this guy coming from Germany and there’s other stories of him changing his hair to make him look a little more tidy.

They can clean him up – I’m on board with that but what I really want is an explanation about who’s idea this was. What was the original intention? Is he supposed to look like a disheveled bum? Is he on the skids? Is on the outs with his wife? Is he being hunted by the mob and just hiding out? The weird thing about TG is that he isn’t really that excited about the money he’s saving. Another thing I wonder about is he doesn’t look like he can totally afford the places he is staying in. I mean, some of these rooms go for  $300 a night and more.

SID VICIOUS: Pitching Cars From The Grave…. Hence, Acura

I about fell over when I saw the commercial for Acura with the song, “My Way” by Sid Vicious from the UK punk band The Sex Pistols. For the uninitiated – the Sex Pistols – were the most notorious band of its kind in 1976-1978. They were banned from playing in multiple venues and caused trouble wherever they went. Sid played bass with the Sex Pistols until they broke up on an American tour. From there he went down a troubled road with heroin and is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death in New York’s Chelsea Hotel. Its gruesome history.

The song, “My Way” was from an indie film called, “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle” and that film was supposed to be a documentary of the career of the Sex Pistols. The movie came out in 1980 and rarely seen any screen life in the US. It was distributed on video and up until recently it was almost impossible to obtain until Shout Factory issued it on DVD.

OK so back to the Acura pitch……  Sid Vicious is screaming away along with an orchestra and a weird guitar ensemble. That is how the song was put together and in many ways it is brilliant. The song was made iconic as the ending credit song in the film, “Goodfellas”. My ex-girlfriend said it was, “The Ramones” and oh… was she wrong!  It is none other than the knife wielding, heroin addicted, leather clad screaming maniac – bloody Sid Vicious!!  And I seriously DOUBT that he would ever be caught dead singing for an Acura commercial. Now, what’s worse is that my ex-girlfriend doesn’t even know who Sid Vicious even was right? I had to tell her who he was. The younger generation don’t even know who the Sex Pistols even are…. Let alone their wild history.

The Sid Vicious image was carefully constructed to be one of absolute rebellion. He wore a motorcycle jacket but walked everywhere. In the Sex Pistols movie he rode a motorcycle but it was actually nothing but a prop roped on top of a trailer. He was obviously too high to actually ride a motorcycle out in the street let alone drive a luxury car. He was always doped up on camera for all the band footage. His manager, Malcom McLaren, portrayed him as a rock and roll gorilla with a head as hard as rock. He was a Neanderthal or in Malcom’s words, “a fabulous disaster…”

On stage he would often cut himself til he bled profusely, vomited in public, and beat up people with his bass guitar. Say what you will but there has never been a luxury product salesman quite like Sid Vicious.

People are sounding off on Twitter…. Oh yes, and here is what they are saying….

I grew up on Punk Rock – and in fact, I still listen to it. I don’t even think I would race out to get an Acura. I don’t think anyone from that demographic would. For one thing a lot of punk rockers are broke or worse are anti money. A lot of people who are into indie music love public transportation and walking or biking everywhere they go. They bring their own booze to restaurants that feature BYOB and they are anti corporate. They rarely wear clothing made by major brands and prefer to get it used from consignment shops. Now, all of a sudden they are asked to buy into a brand because Sid Vicious is hawking it from the dead!?

LOL !!!!

Here is the sad thing about this weirdness. Sid Vicious is dead and I am pretty sure there isn’t any kind of estate concerning his name outside of the Sex Pistols brand. His mother tragically died a few years ago from heroin. Oddly, she was the one who first got him into it before he met his junkie drug addicted girlfriend Nancy Spungen.  Sid’s dad was actually a guard for the Queen and had ditched his family years ago and had nothing to do with him. The bands manager, Malcom McLaren, also passed away from cancer a few years ago.

The question is who is handling the licensing of the Sex Pistols / Sid Vicious catalog? I am not sure if lead singer Johnny Rotten has control over it. Maybe the rights belong to Virgin Records? I know they jumped labels multiple times and their famous album, “Never Mind The Bullocks Here’s The Sex Pistols” was issued in America through Warner Brothers. Maybe they pulled the trigger, ( no pun intended)?

The rest of the Sid Vicious story gets actually worse. After he was cremated his remains were being transported through Heathrow Airport. The handler, (not sure who it was exactly) dropped his urn and it cracked open and spilled his remains all over the hallway where it was swept up in the air from the air conditioners and sucked into the air vents. Johnny Rotten joked this Sid’s remains are still blowing around inside the airport and added, “Even in death he was a total failure….” Or something to that effect.

So I know I threw a lot of stuff at you but here it goes. His mother got him on heroin, he joins a punk band and cannot even play his bass guitar, he meets up with a junkie girlfriend and supposedly stabs her to death. From there he gets thrown into Rikers Island and is later released on bond and while he is out OD’s and dies. He gets cremated and then from there he ends up in some random air duct for the rest of time. He was 21 years old. The end. That is the Sid Vicious story.

The story gets weirder from there but the question is how deep do you want to go? It was announced not long ago that his own mother may have actually assisted in killing him. She couldn’t bare the reality of him going back to Rikers Island and being broken hearted. According to the account she gave him a fatal dose of heroin!

 Is this the kind of buyer that Acura is going for? I hope they aren’t encouraging people to live their lives out like this so destructively. Do you think a person like that cares about luxury? Style? Or prestige?

Before Sid Vicious joined the band he was in the audience bopping around doing a dance called, The Pogo. This was the predecessor to slam dancing. He would knock people over with his bouncing up and down. He never washed his clothes or his body so he reeked all the time. Sid Vicious would live with his mother on and off when he wasn’t living on the street with his chums. They would squat in empty council flats and live there illegally.

I want to mention that this song, “My Way” was delivered as a slap in the face of authority. When he performed it in the film he sang it on the stage of the famous French record label producer Eddie Barclay in front of high society. These people are dressed up in dresses and tuxedos. They throw roses up at Sid as he bellows into the mic. At the end of the song Sid pulls out a magnum pistol and proceeds to shoot members of the audience and they are screaming. One of the people he shoots is his own mother Anne Beverly who is sitting in the front row. She made a cameo in the film, “The Great Rock and Roll Swindle”. From there Sid walks back up the lighted staircase while flipping off the still screaming audience. He does the inverted V sign which is British for saying, “Up your arse….”.

This is Acuras new spokesman.

Great.

Whats next? G.G. Allin coming back from the dead to hawk Rolex watches?