What Would John Do?

So is the new Citroen DS3 ad good? It is musically sacriligeous? Is it cool, is it anti cool?

I'm not quite sure to be honest.

The message is nice, given our obsession as a nation of looking back and reliving our past in various guises. The sense of a car built to be the opposite of retro, against the faux-retro love in of the Fiat 500 and Mini (though I love the Abarth). Citroen doing what they have always done best and being provoking and unusual.

As Scroobius Pip says: 'The Beatles were just a band.' I love music, I can and will talk for days on the merits of genres and styles and tracks; but raising someone up on this pedestal where they are treated like a god is just weird. That said, the collective image and belief of an artist in the mind of the public is very much the same as how brands are an amalgam of views and opinions, no matter what truths we as marketers know or try to get across.

So is it right to use John Lennon in this way? Well I find it no more offensive than the Nike Instant Karma ads, no more so than Blackberry's All you need is love ad, no more so than the treatment of Elvis or Hendrix in tv shows and ads.

If his estate approved it who are we (with all the good intention in the world) to disapprove?

A nice ad, an interesting thought provoking message that is right on brand and spot on for the market. It also helps that the car is bloody mad, I love it.