In commercial (or, more specifically, consumer-brain) shorthand,
classical music and opera = high-end, expensive, classy. If you buy a
car that was advertised with opera playing on the TV, you are one
cultured, loaded guy.
I think a lot about how the
“industry is dying” but classical music and opera are still
omnipresent. I’m sure if I had a different job, I would still passively
hear classical music once a day. So my ears always perk up when opera
comes out of my television, but when this Jeep commercial came on last night during Frasier,
I was extremely confused. First of all, since when do Jeep Grand
Cherokees try to be classy? Isn’t their whole shtick driving through
the mud or whatever? I suppose everyone in the commercial is still
doing manly, Jeeply things, they’re just…singing opera while they do them? I love my Jeep so much I…bust out Boheme? Nothing says “I just freed a fox” like Rudolfo’s aria.
I suppose none of this matters, because it’s an ad and it got my attention. Objective achieved.
[Also, are those even the right words? My official opera consultant is out of town, but I don’t think they are.]