Our cute and catchy couple captures heart of music’s curmudgeonly counselor and critic

Pomplamoose capture Christmas for Hyundai

By Bob Lefsetz,

Felice wants an Equus.

We’re sitting around the table at dinner, shooting the shit, and Stephen starts complaining that his Smart Car is just too anemic, he puts the pedal to the metal and nothing happens for seconds, he’s got to buy something new. Therein, the great L.A. car debate is engendered.

Felice drives a Lexus GS300. A 2002. You could drive that car forever, but she’s beginning to become annoyed by the rattles. And you can’t buy a new Lexus.

BECAUSE TOYOTA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE!

If George Bush, according to Kanye West, doesn’t care about black people, Toyota is unconcerned with the proletariat. We want our automobiles to give us a fighting chance, we don’t want them to kill us. And it takes years to change production lines. Whatever Toyota says, those killing machines are still in the pipeline.

So do you buy a BMW or Mercedes?

Nah. There’s too much image wrapped up in those. And their repair records are heinous. Who wants to pay that much and have trouble?

My recently graduated from college nephew bought a Hyundai. It’s the go-to automobile of Generation Y. Because it’s cheap and good. It just works. And you can’t say that about too much in this world.

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Apple’s great. But Apple’s expensive. It’s for the elite.

Hyundai is for the people.

Therefore, maybe doing an ad for Hyundai is not like pimping for other products. Actors will endorse anything. Hell, Gilbert Gottfried is hyping a long shoehorn. Howard Stern asked him if he ever used the Shoedini. Gilbert says they gave him one, but it’s in a closet somewhere, he’s never tried it out.

That’s modern advertising.

Or is it?

These Pomplamoose/Hyundai ads are head-turners. Because watching them, it’s not clear whether the ad is for Hyundai or Pomplamoose. You don’t have to Google the ad, to find out who did it. Then again, maybe you do, because you’re unfamiliar with the duo, but they just got better exposure than any video on MTV, Vevo too. They got to play their music and be themselves and get paid, all at the same time.

But they’re whoring themselves out, right?

Well, the difference here is they’re in business for themselves. They’re not signed to any label, we don’t see the same string-pullers behind the scenes. Therefore, we applaud Complacency’s victory. I don’t believe in advertising, then again, I’d do an endorsement for Dannon Coffee yogurt, I use the stuff, I’ve already eaten three today!

What we’ve got here is a marriage between a cool band and a cool car. The car company is so cool that they were fine with putting their machine second. Sure, they’re trading on the hipness/cachet of Pomplamoose, but somehow these ads seem to be showcases for the band.

This is a win/win/win.

Hyundai gets to be associated with a hip brand. Pomplamoose gets paid and gets exposure. And Pomplamoose fans are excited about their heroes’ good fortune and new people are brought to the tribe, not because Pomplamoose is jammed down their throats so much as they’re viewing something unique/hip, that entices them.

Very few products have the positive image of Hyundai.

And very few artists are as cool as Pomplamoose.

And very few advertising agencies can convince their clients to essentially make an ad for a band.

But consider my rule broken. This is one case where I’m giving a thumbs-up to endorsement. I’m thrilled that two hip entities have joined forces to benefit each other.

And I wouldn’t be ashamed to cruise around in an Equus with Felice. We’d look smart. Frugal. And they even come to your house to pick the car up for service, what could be better than that?

Editor – Try writing out Pomplamoose without making a mistake. Lefsetz spelled it wrong once. If you look at my pics you’ll see I’ve spelled it everything from Pamplemouse to Pomplamouse. I fixed his and now have to correct my own.

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