Has anyone seen the new Chevy commercial? It shows footage of the SOTT movie with Prince singing LRC. At the end the camera,supposedly from Prince view, goes backstage past security, speakers, amps, goes downstairs, through doors that opens to an alley with a red corvette waiting at the curb. Now I know Prince couldn't have agreed to endorse a product especially with him being so anti-corporate. He must be peeved! Does he even own a Chevy? Aren't all his cars BMW's, except for the Thunderbird? Now I see what Prince means when he said that WB can use his image anyway they want to because they own everything pre-Emancipation. Anyway thought you guys would like to know and take a peek at it. I saw it on lame VH1.

CocoSweet said:

HE may not own one, but I'd highly recommend the new Corvette. It was my last car (1999 Black coupe), and I loved it. It beats the hell out of that cheesy BMW Z3 and the overdone Prowler!

By the way, I've enjoyed seeing the "Little Red Corvette" billboards and magazine ads, giving credit to "". In my opinion, for Prince, there's really no such thing as bad publicity. As an artist, he's still very relevant, but sadly underappreciated.

TheMax said:

I saw the ad on VH1 today too. I thought it was real cool to see Prince in the ad, especially considering the song and the car. I also wondered if Prince approved of it. He probably didn't. Oh, and the car they showed I believe it was the new 2003 Chevy SSR. I think it's half convertible, half truck. It's not bad.

How funny I just saw this commercial for the first time about 5 minutes ago. Everyone at work knows I'm the resident Prince freak, I'm gonna get bombarded with, "hey, did you see the new Chevy commercial? Prince must have sold out." Then I'll have to go into my speech about how he didn't sell out and how WB owns the rights to his music, blah, blah, blah. Then I'll get teased for knowing too much about Prince. I sure am happy to see him on TV as much as possible though!

So what would be the difference between that and a fan having recordings and doing whatever with them???

WAIT A MINUTE - they can use his LIKENESS without his approval??? That's some bullshit!!

I hope he IS in favor of the Corvette campaign - why not? Make that $! He had to approve them using the symbol on the billboards, right? Maybe he agreed to this commercial too. I hope so, 'cause that's JACKED if it went down any other way...

CalhounSq said:

No they can not neither can they use video/audio recordings, so draw your own conclusions from that.

joeycoco said:

WHEW, that's what I thought...

Supernova said:

can't fuck with a classic...

BMW prowler... ... no...

the corvette is most def the bomb...

CocoSweet said:

i'm sure prince approved those ads, even allowed chevy to use the somg/his likeness/the symbol. and why not? let the man get some propers for a change.

I haven't seen the ad, but Prince had to approve the use of his likeness. He's probably being very well paid by Chevrolet for his services, so ...

I've been hearing Little Red Corvette being played on the radio lately, so there is a spin-off effect from the ad and the song may get popular again, just like 1999 became popular again a couple years ago.

Good for Prince. It's exposure.

Seriously, people, he used the General Motors trademark name "Corvette" in his song, so he stole it first. I'm surprised they waited this long to use it.


In regards to "Helter Skelter," U2 said, "this is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles - we're stealing it back." So good for Prince and good for Chevrolet.

I saw the commercial last night...it is indeed very cool. loved seeing and hearing it...but it's a lil confusing that they show prince singing LRC and then what they show is not the corvette but the SSR. The SSR seems cool and all..but the commercial makes it look like the new corvette which it isn't.
[This message was edited Wed Oct 9 8:58:17 PDT 2002 by Shorty]

I guess with Prince being so anti-corporate that he wouldn't contradict himself, (yeah, I know I'm talking about Prince the master of contradiction ), but he is so proud of being his own man that I don't think that he would sell-out when he's so against that. Am I wrong or has he always approached it like money is to flow like currency, but his art is his life?
Exposure is something Prince could always get if he wanted it, if he went along with the music industry's game, but he got out of the game to be his own person, understanding the lack of support and press he was going to get from his decision. I mean he could have made a mint from 1999 alone three years ago.

Prince did not sell out on this one. He negotiated with Chevy directly and re-mastered Little Red Corvette exclusively for Chevy as o(+> and he gave them the song for the 50th anniversary. Of course, Chevy had to pay an undisclosed sum of money but the deal was done as a gift. Chevy Execs approached Prince about 5 years ago to try to get the song for the anniversary, but he was still in the thick of his legal issues with WB at the time so some alternate arrangements had to be made.

I got this info from my ex-boyfriend who is currently working on the Corvette marketing team, but he was not with Chevy for the duration of this deal. I think his info if reliable, but make your own decision.

I have not seen the commercial, but I have seen the billboard ad outside NYC. It caught my eye, because I saw the LRC lyrics. Pretty cool if Prince did let Chevy use it as a birthday gift. Especially since Prince drives a Prowler.

Of course he approved it. The motherfucker is going broke.

Moby markets every hit he has to companies and film studios.

Why shouldn't Prince get some mileage off of Little Red Corvette?

Get it? "Mileage ... corvette?" It's a play on wor-- Oh, never mind...

Why would this be seen as selling out?? It's not like he's doing a friggin' Taco Bell commercial, JEEZ...

joeycoco said:

...the Purple Law Squad's on their way 2 chevy, then.

TheMax said:

I totally agree about the publicity thing. And I love seeing the billboards around.