To follow up on a discussion from earlier in the week about Navy recruiting commercials, it seemed necessary to illustrate the point with this week’s bored sailor video.
Remember a few years ago when the Navy purchased the rights to Godsmack‘s then-hit song Awake? Despite the jokes about the commercials, the heavy guitar riff soon became not identified with the band’s hit single but with Navy recruiting efforts. In other words, whoever pushed to purchase the rights to the song for the Navy’s commercials had pulled off a stroke of marketing genius.
Godsmack’s star faded somewhat in the wake of the uproar. Some have suggested that Godsmack selling the song’s rights to the Navy showed it supported the unpopular Iraq war and that it contributed to their downfall from pop stardom. The band’s lead singer Sully Erna told the media at the time the band did not support the war but supported the troops. Read a 2006 interview during which Erna addresses the controversy here. The band has since made a resurgence and now sits at No. 6 on the Billboard rock charts.
One of the Scoop Deck faithful posted this video in the comments section, which shows junior sailors doing what junior sailors do best: manual labor. It also shows them having a little fun with the Navy’s recruiting spots, Godsmack and all. Observe:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFisR3jiTs0&NR=1&feature=fvwp[/youtube]
2 Comments
Our Chief at boot camp put a small boombox in the head when we cleaning it for our big compartment inspection and blasted both this song, Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone,” and “In the Navy” by the Village People.
And uh….Godsmack’s last 3 albums went platinum.
Al, that’s a very funny story. Also a fair point, one that I concede. I changed the language of the post a bit.
Thanks for reading!