At the age of 69, Iggy Pop remains one of the most high-energy, explosive musicians around. As singer for The Stooges, he established himself as a figurehead for counterculture movement in the 1960s, and it’s this very same rebellious and honest mindset that he brought to his chat with Nils Leonard, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer for Grey London, at Cannes Lions earlier this week.
“In my work, I have a god, and that’s the public,” he explained. “The public is my god. And this public god does not like supplicants. The public god wants some action. They want you to sock it to ’em. And I suppose, in advertising, it gets tricker. I would assume ultimately the company’s god has to be the buyer, the buying public. And in the middle is this kind of voodoo priest called the ad guy. You’ve gotta convince the client that you’re gonna make it rain—and that if it does rain, it was your doing!”
Iggy says this not just as an artist, but as someone who loves advertising. He remembers when he first heard a Stooges song, he “was so thrilled. I felt like I was somebody. I felt like I was in the society. I had never thought about getting paid for it”. Since then, he has appeared in a range of commercials as a performer, including a range for UK auto insurer SwiftCover, which ended up being banned because the company doesn’t actually cover those who work in the entertainment industry.
As expected, the conversation was both inspirational and strange, with Iggy occasionally playing ad executive to discuss how companies like Volkswagen could overcome recent controversies simply by ignoring them.
“Volkswagen has had problems lately because they were naughty. They lied about the omissions, blah blah blah. And I thought, you know, when I was in college, there was a wonderful spontaneous gesture that swept the colleges all over America. Kids would try to see how many people they could get into a Volkswagen Beetle. A revival of that – something that’s just fun -would be probably worth 25 corporate mea culpas (admissions of guilt).“
Inspiration suddenly dawned.
“You could do it naked on the internet!” he suggested excitedly. “How many tall people? How many short people? How many Armenians could you fit in a Volkswagen? People would forget about the emissions! Or maybe cover a Volkswagen with a sign on it that says ‘naughty’, and have women in bondage gear whipping it. Punish that Volkswagen! Maybe a giant robo-cop comes in. Elicit sympathy for the Volkswagen!”
The crowd laughs, but it’s Iggy’s next statement that drives home his point: “I’ll bet people wouldn’t (hit) ‘Skip Ad’!”
It makes sense. Agencies have been struggling to create engaging online video advertising since Youtube content could first be monetised, and Google’s only reaction to lack of interest in its platform’s ads has been to develop new initiatives like the unblockable ‘bumper’ ad, or Youtube Red, the subscription service designed to counter rising use of adblocker plugins.
The talk ended in traditional Iggy style. The pair stood up, removed their jackets, and stood topless on the stage, as Leonard promised he would if his charity campaign for Ehlers-Danlos Support UK hit its £2000 target. It reached £2300.