The Big Boys and Branding
‘Hook it up!’
By 1997, MTV was available to 280 million households in over 70 countries.1 Four years later, this had increased to more than 352.6 million households in 140 territories worldwide.2 With images of Hip Hop flooding the music scene, advertisers everywhere are cottoning on to the fact that Hip Hop sells. But this isn’t just about selling music – it’s about selling an image… a style… a dream… a youthful revolution. In a world that seems out of control, and where young people are feeling powerless, the ideas of independence and defiance are very ‘sexy’.
Hip Hop Sells
As soon as this new market became obvious, artists started aligning themselves with brands – for instance, Run-D.M.C. was approached by Adidas after the success of their tribute song about their favourite brand of footwear (titled ‘My Adidas’) in 1986.
…my Adidas and me both asking P/ we make a good team my Adidas and me…
Run-D.M.C.
This kind of partnership opened the way for other companies to do the same. Since this advertising break-through, companies across America have used inner city (Black and Latino) youths as their guinea pigs of style.3 There’s the ‘G-6’ – a sneaker marketed by Reebok with the help of 50 Cent; the S.Carter (also Reebok) with thanks to Jay-Z; McDonalds ‘Lovin’ It’ campaigned with a Hip Hop soundtrack and a spoof of Ali G and Virgin mobile featured rap artist Busta Rhymes4 - to name but a few.
In fact, there are so many of these Hip Hop brandings, that now there’s even a marketing list – ‘American Brandstand’ – which ‘lists weekly brands that feature in the lyrics of songs in the American chart.’5 Mercedes, Gucci, Prada, Bentley, Louis Vuitton… brand names reserved, in the past, for the rich elite, all jockey for position here.
Cars and diamond rings, and nice braids, flaunt it/ The Gucci boots with the G's on it/ A high price for this 'high price' life…
‘My Life’ 'Chyna Doll' 1999 by Foxy Brown
This same trend can be seen in countries right across the globe. Busta Rhymes' song ‘Pass the Courvoisier’ saw the UK’s best selling cognac of the same name increase in sales by 10%.6 The Boost Mobile campaign, (using platinum selling recording artists Kanye West, Ludacris, and The GAME) asks Hip Hop fans around the US "Where You At?" At the same time, their new 'Anthem' spot (aired on MTV and other youth-oriented national networks) showcased these Hip Hop all-stars using nationwide Boost(SM) Walkie-Talkie service to perform freestyle rhymes.
Advertising has literally colonised western culture because it takes up more and more space and has become the dominant voice. In the 1980s, studies showed the average person was exposed to 1,500 commercial impressions each day. By the late 1990s the average was 3,600 per day.7
In Aotearoa, up-and-coming rap artists front Boost Mobile advertisements, and the New Zealand branch of the company sponsors such events as The Boost Mobile Hook Up Tour, the Boost Mobile MC Battle for Supremacy, the Boost Mobile Aotearoa Hip Hop Summit and dedicated TV music slots. Of course, if you go to their site, where all such events are listed, there’s also a handy guide to products and sales.
It’s not just Boost Mobile … Burger King advertisements play rap beats, as do promotions for educational institutions, and many logos or brands are presented in the style of aerosol art. Public health messages have also been ‘Hip Hopped’ – even down to a rap telling youth ‘[i]f you don’t have a rubba there’ll be no hubba hubba.’
Hubba Hubba
We’re told by the Ministry of Health that their sexual health campaign No Rubba, No Hubba Hubba ‘seems to have struck a chord with teens'. Positive feedback has been received from young people about the campaign – and in particular the campaign jingle. There are even reports of the ‘hubba’ song being sung at parties’.8 The campaign, whose website received over 1.3 million hits in its first four months, ‘aims to reduce high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in sexually active young people by encouraging them to use a condom every time they have sex’.
Few could disagree with Hip Hop being used as a way to direct teenagers’ attention to messages about safe sex, however the use of Hip Hop symbols, without understanding of the 'bigger' Hip Hop culture, could be seen as commercial opportunism. With huge international corporations pouring millions into youth advertising it is important to educate young people in how to be more wary and discriminating about what they see and hear.
In preparing young people to move ahead in a consumer driven world, we first need to give them the tools to liberate themselves from the unrelenting images and values of the powerful advertising masters, and then give them a vision of what is real and human.
Anonymous9
BIGGER, BETTER TECHNOLOGY
One of the lovely ironies about the focus of advertising promoting ‘bigger and better’ everything – from record sales, jewellery and cars, to mobile technology – is that the same technological advances that helped hijack the Hip Hop world have now progressed to the point that the ‘little man’ can take back some control.
Since 1979, the cost of a piano has tripled to an average of $2,900, while the price of electric keyboards has fallen so much that you can pick a good one up for under $400… a street kid who could never afford to hire strings or horns or who has been denied the education that would let him write parts for those instruments, now finds it all at his fingertips.10
New digital technology means that the cost of recording and distributing a CD has come down to a level that many people can now afford without ‘selling their soul’. At the same time, the Internet has dramatically affected the way music is sold and marketed, to the fury of the recording executives.
Staying ‘True’
Fortunately there is still proof of Hip Hop staying ‘true’ to its humble beginnings. B-boying and B-girling, on the whole, has been able to develop without much corporate interference, because ‘there was nothing really to package it with… no special break dancing shoes that you needed to buy… no special break dancing floor.’11
It’s reassuring that youth still hang out on street corners and represent Hip Hop in its real sense… as a vehicle for self-expression, a million mind-sets away from corporate control.
Your screen is plastered with master card and new blue jeans / you’re blasted with pasta ads, faster abs, plaster pads… can our brains separate the false from the real? / or our emotional states – when they fashion how we feel…12
Test your knowledge
- How many households were able to access MTV in 1997? And four years later?
- What product did Run-DMC promote?
- Name two other international Hip Hop artists who are involved in high profile product promotion.
- What is the purpose of the marketing list ‘American Brandstand’?
- How is Boost Mobile associated with Hip Hop in Aotearoa?
- How has technology given back some control to the ‘ordinary’ person?
Expand your thinking
How do you feel about Hip Hop being used in advertising? Does it make you take notice? Do you respect the artists who get involved? Why do you think artists agree to support an advertiser? How do you feel about Hip Hop culture being used to promote health and education? What are the possible dangers of ‘over-commercialising’ Hip Hop?
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