The Funniest story of the week appeared in the Guardian on Saturday:
Radio 1 was last night forced to withdraw a song some of its top DJs had been playing after it emerged the track appeared to be a thinly disguised advert for a brand of hair gel.
The electro track called Style, Attract, Play by Shocka featuring Honeyshot has featured on programmes by Judge Jules and Annie Nightingale in recent months.
Style, Attract Play is the slogan for the hair product range Shockwaves. Honeyshot was created by the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi as a pop group that can be bought “off the shelf” by companies to covertly promote their brands.
When Radio 1 was informed yesterday by the Guardian about the song’s origins, a spokesman said: “The track was presented to Radio 1 in the usual way, via a legitimate promotions company and we were not aware that it was a promotional tool for a hair product.
“As this is created by an advertising agency with the sole purpose of selling this product, and we do not play adverts, it is not something we would play again.”
Other stations including Kiss and XFM have also played the song.
Initially, the Shockwaves press office said it knew nothing about the song and its relationship to the brand. But a spokeswoman called back later to admit “there may be a link” and would confirm when she knew more.
Several hours later a different spokeswoman said she could not speak to anyone at Procter & Gamble, the company which owns Shockwaves, and therefore could not comment further.
Honeyshot were put together by Saatchi & Saatchi via an advert in The Stage newspaper. After the launch, Brand Republic magazine described the band as being “the most disposable incarnation of pop in a post reality-TV world”.
In other funny musical news reportage, BBC 6 Music has compiled a list of the worst lyrics of all time. Here is my favourite from the list, from the ever poetic Johnny Borrell-led Razorshite with ‘Somewhere Else’:
“And I met a girl/She asked me my name/I told her what it was”
Barf.
