THE WHITE STRIPES HAVE ACCUSED THE AIR FORCE RESERVE OF RIPPING THEM OFF IN THEIR SUPER BOWL AD
THE WHITE STRIPES HAVE ACCUSED THE AIR FORCE RESERVE OF RIPPING THEM OFF IN THEIR SUPER BOWL AD
Did you see the Super Bowl commercial for the Air Force Reserve? The one with all the snowboarding, surfing and stuff that had the tag line “Grab Some Air”??? (It was a regional ad, and only aired in select markets across the country.)
Well, it was backed by an instrumental track that sounded a lot like the WHITE STRIPES’ song, “Fell in Love with a Girl”. And that would be a problem because the band was never asked for permission to use the song.
The band issued a statement saying, quote, “We believe our song was re-recorded and used without permission of the White Stripes, our publishers, label or management.
“The White Stripes take strong insult and objection to the Air Force Reserve’s presenting this advertisement with the implication that we licensed one of our songs to encourage recruitment during a war that we do not support.
“The White Stripes support this nation’s military, at home and during times when our country needs and depends on them. We simply don’t want to be a cog in the wheel of the current conflict, and hope for a safe and speedy return home for our troops.
“We have not licensed this song to the Air Force Reserve and we plan to take strong action to stop the ad containing this music.”
As you can probably tell, the song in the commercial really DOES sound like “Fell in Love with a Girl,” and the Air Force Reserve seemed to acknowledge that right away by removing the ad from their website.
Later, they issued statement passing the blame onto a company called Fast Forward Music, which they hired to, quote, “score original music for [the] commercial.”
Fast Forward owner Michael Lee is also shirking accountability. He’s pointing the finger at a freelance musician named Kim Craft that they hired to compose the music. Lee claims that both he and Craft were unfamiliar with the White Stripes song.
And Craft is taking the hit for this. He tells “Entertainment Weekly”, quote, “It’s my responsibility. I’m the one who composed the music. And I had no idea it was like that [song].” He added that he had, quote, “no intention of copying” it
He also offered to pay back the $2,000 that he earned for the job.
Tags: AIR, air force reserve, forward music, freelance musician, music, song, speedy return, STRIPES, WHITE, white stripes
February 10th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Q945: THE WHITE STRIPES HAVE ACCUSED THE AIR FORCE RESERVE OF RIPPING THEM OFF IN THEIR SUPER BOWL AD http://bit.ly/cRoKR4