Who, what, why

While formal contracts to write songs about brands are rare, some rap artists have seeded their songs with a brand name and then sought a deal.

Hip Hop Gets Down with the Deals, Businessweek.

Co innego, gdy śpiewasz o Coca-Coli, bo tak ci się układa rym, a co innego, gdy bierzesz za to pieniądze.

(English translation /bad/)

Big Mac między wierszami: dokąd sięga product placement, Onet.pl.

This blog is run by a Polish freelance journalist, Piotr Ślusarski who specializes in advertising, marketing and popular culture, Gladys Santiago, a New York-based media analyst and founder of the Product Displacement blog, whose branding-related work has been featured in Wired, AdFreak, and PSFK - and Clare Curran, an award-winning designer from the UK with 12+ years in the field.

Each song (be it rap or other) that you will find here mentions a given brand name in the lyrics or title: either as a result of “licentia poetica” meant as freedom to create, or more pragmatically - product placement a.k.a hidden advertising. 

In other words, Chuck Berry claimed nothin’ will outrun his V8 Ford “for free”, because he simply wanted to, just as Janis Joplin sang on her own volition (and without financial incentive) about Mercedes, while Petey Pablo or 50 Cent were paid to mention Seagram’s or Reebok. All of them belong in the database, with the only difference being the fact that the cases of product placement are clearly marked.

Apart from the latter, there are also four other categories where the tunes go: songs mentioning brands, songs about brands, brand criticism, brand praise, brand reference and recently added product displacement. And what’s that? Head over to Gladys for explanation.

Since the beginning of 2012 we’ve been also interviewing musicians, marketers, scholars and other interesting people about brand dropping and more - so there is something to read, not only to listen to. We gave some interviews in the past, now we conduct them ourselves.

If you have any suggestions, remarks or just feel like saying hi - do not hesitate to drop a line or two. Want to co-create SWABN? This is music to our ears (pun intended), go this or that way.  Got a question? Ask away!

Have a nice listening - and reading too!

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