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Does This Devo Advertisment Feel Weird to You?
Post-punk band Devo once mocked corporate banality and conformity without mercy, which is probably why this YouTube video featuring Devo Inc.’s COO Greg Scholl feels so strange.
Maybe it’s Scholl’s goofy mugshot or his lively marketspeak, or maybe it’s the actual images of the press release that flash by as he charts the band’s plans. But whatever it is, Scholl’s jolly announcement of Devo Inc.’s new partnership with Warner Bros. Records is nearly as surreal as the band’s weirdo 1976 video, The Truth About De-Evolution. Or Devo leader Mark Mothersbaugh’s mutant rugs, come to think of it.
We should’ve seen this type of corporate and cognitive dissonance coming. In fact, Mothersbaugh warned us about it when he spoke with Wired.com about his crazy floor coverings.
“Thirty-five years later, de-evolution seems even more a part of our daily reality than ever,” he explained. “There is more misinformation, humans have overrun the planet, and it is not nuclear bombs we must fear, but the human mind. Or lack of it. Devo has played its part in alerting humans to the truth about de-evolution, that things are falling apart faster than we predicted.”
See Also:
- Devo’s Mutant Music Returns, This Time With Weirdo Rugs
- Video: This Is Devo-lution
- SXSW: Devo, Mohawks and Freaky Fashions Keep Austin Weird
- Devo Is Dead. Long Live Devo.
View full post on Wired: Underwire
Wow, rebellious kids grow up and become old sell-outs? That’s got to be a first! Thank god Wired is here to report this.
Yeah, it feels weird – it’s supposed to.
Even during those long years when DEVO supposedly wasn’t a going concern, Mothersbaugh and company were out, subtly infiltrating the culture – a Nickelodeon soundtrack here, a commercial jingle there, and how about a kiddy cover band – and this feels like a welcome new phase in DEVO’s ongoing mission. Hell, the motif of “smiling man in business suit talking about synergy” can be used to sell just about anything, so why *not* DEVO?