Well we are a creative design agency and we love fun advertising, especially when Cadbury's returned to our TV's last week with their latest Glass and a Half Full Production. Continuing with their now trademark randomness, the new Cadburys TV ad replaces Gorillas and Trucks with two spooky kids exercising some freaky eyebrow gymnastics. But you knew that, right?
But what you might not have known, (before hunting on YouTube at least), was the piece of music which accompanies said advert. For me, (and speaking as an ageing B-Boy of a certain age, here) what's really remarkable about this new spot is the music itself. Sounding instantly fresh and oddly of-the-moment, Freestyle's "Dont Stop The Rock" is in fact an obscure electro gem, released some 24 years ago in 1985 (Whoa! Has it been that long?!)
The Freestyle track is an underground anthem from the earlier Electro sub-genre of Hip Hop, a time before Hip Hop went household, a time when local producers would press up only limited quantities of vinyl and sell them from the trunk of their car. Miami-based producer Tony 'Pretty Tony' Butler released a string of club tracks including "Dont Stop The Rock" on his own Music Specialist label in the mid-80's. He helped build the electro legacy that would give birth to Miami bass music. In the UK, unless you grabbed one of the few imports that made it to these shores, the track otherwise only featured on Electro 10 of the cult StreetSounds Electro compilation series - a soundtrack for many B-Boys growing up in the mid-80's.
So what's the point I'm making here? Well apart from some shameless reminiscing, none really. Other than to say, I'm guessing there's a tried-and-tested protocol when buying the rights to a Phil Collins or Queen tune for use in your TV ad - expensive, sure; but fairly routine nevertheless. But to track down and buy the rights to a provincial Miami club tune from the mid eighties must have been an interesting journey. And for me, thats the random and totally off-the-wall bit that freaks me out most about this ad.
Whilst many of you try to recreate the ‘eyebrow thing’ in the privacy of your own home, this advert gets me in a whole other way - it makes me want to push back the furniture and roll out the lino. And that would raise some eyebrows!