When Rob Zombie Had Once Called Out Britney Spears for Being a “Sold-Out Corporate Puppet”
Rockstar Rob Zombie had once called out pop queen Britney Spears for being a "sold-out corporate puppet" while explaining that he and his music are not for commercial sale. The statement was given when the Living Dead Girl hitmaker learned that one of the tracks from his triple-platinum 1998 album Hellbilly Deluxe had been commercially used without his permission for a Mazda Truck TV commercial. On seeing that his anti-corporate image had been shattered, Zombie had said back then - “Someone like Britney Spears doesn’t have any integrity to maintain so it doesn’t matter — she’s a corporate puppet from the get-go. But for people who aren’t, it’s different. I don’t want to play that song live and see the kids go,’ Hey! It’s the truck song!’ Corporate America doesn’t understand that some people actually have values about things. Everything isn’t for sale.”
As per The Things, Zombie filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Mazda for using an excerpt from his song Demonoid Phenomenon without his knowledge in October 1999. The car company was also served with a cease-and-desist letter and the commercial was forbidden from being aired again. However, after the lawsuit was filed Mazda and Zombie reached an out-of-court settlement. Zombie had filed the copyright infringement suit at the Federal District Court in Los Angeles on May 31, 2000, seeking a monetary sum based on the car company's profits and his damages. In 2002, while speaking exclusively to MTV about the incident Zombie made it clear that he did not want to look like a "sell-out" to his fans.
"They Mazda and Doner don't seem to understand that once the cat's out of the bag, it's hard to get him back in there," Zombie said in a statement. "It's like my policy is 'I don't do this,' and then there's a car commercial running on television with my music. How do you explain to every kid, that you didn't sell out and didn't do exactly what you said you weren't going to do? Basically, it's a question of what your reputation is worth." W.B. Doner had in fact earlier approached Zombie's management company in 2000 to use excerpts of Demonoid Phenomenon in their advertisement. Zombie's management had responded with the specific monetary amount and other details to sanction the proposal but things had fizzed out in the end.
The Dragula rockstar referred to Spears as a "sold-out corporate puppet" for signing a whopping $100 million deal with Pepsi for its global campaign in 2001. The exact terms of the colossal deal were not disclosed to the public but Pepsi reportedly paid out $50 million to the Toxic hitmaker. "Britney is on the cutting edge of contemporary popular entertainment," Dawn Hudson, Pepsi's senior vice president of strategy and marketing had said back then."She's youthful, inventive, optimistic, and fun-loving - the ultimate fit with the Pepsi brand. Our relationship will resonate in every corner of the market."
As per the Guardian, the huge deal was brokered by the Los Angeles music marketing agency Aaron Walton Entertainment and the first Pepsi ad with Spears premiered during the Oscars on March 25.
References:
https://www.mtv.com/news/c9senn/rob-zombies-zoom-zoom-lawsuit-goes-bye-bye
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/feb/07/advertising3
