On How "Bleeding Heart Show" Became The University Of Phoenix Theme Song
How many times have you seen that University Of Phoenix spot with the New Pornographer's "Bleeding Heart Show" getting you all psyched about online college education? You guys have emailed incessantly about it for months, we've seen it a gazillion times, but by the time vid surfaced it was old news (and we know how you hate old news). BUT now we have Carl quotage on the New Porno's advertorial election, justified with a jab at Of Montreal's Outback campaign. He told P4K:
It's one of those things that just, you get a call, and somebody said "hey, the University of Phoenix wants to use the end of "Bleeding Heart Show" in a commercial." And I thought, "eh, fair enough." And I really honestly didn't know that University of Phoenix was a huge online university. I actually thought it was, like, the University of Phoenix; like, every city has its big university, you know? And I thought, "oh, it'll show in the Southwest." It seemed kind of odd to me, like, I've never heard of a university having a TV commercial, but I thought, oh well. All of a sudden, people started saying "I saw your commercial during 'Saturday Night Live'" or "I saw your commercial during 'American Idol'," and I thought, "what the hell is up with that?"
Then I began to realize that, well, I guess we inadvertently signed up to be in a big commercial. How about that?When asked if it was odd to be connected to a "sketchy university," Carl went on:
You know, if University of Phoenix is some kind of scam, then I suppose I'd feel kind of stupid for being a part of it, but you know, I can't really say that I have much of an opinion, you know? It's a university, or a school, and it might be a crappy school, but it seems like letting a crappy school use your song is probably better than letting the best business use your song. I'm not overly political, but if Wal-Mart wanted to use the song, I would just go, "fuck off, no chance in hell." But for a lot of other things, I'm not so precious about our music. A lot of work went into it-- you record your song and you mix it and you put it out and it's there in the world, and as for the rest of it, I can't really stop people from doing with it what they want. Songs always mean the same thing to me regardless of whether they're in a commercial or playing in the background on "The Office" or whatever. I don't really have any... I'm kind of shocked that I have to talk about it. One thing that made me feel better was, right around the time that commercial started showing up, there was also the Outback Steakhouse commercial with Of Montreal in it. And I thought, "thank God, that's really going to deflect some attention away from us." At least we didn't give our song to Outback. Now I'm afraid if I accidentally say something about the University of Phoenix that a hammer is going to come down on my head, or I'll find myself in a lawsuit. My official stance is, "I fully support the University of Phoenix," but to back that, I honestly didn't know what it was. But then again, if I did know what it was, I'm not sure that I would have said no. We're just trying to get by in this world. When you play music for so long and don't make any money, and people start offering you money for things that involve no effort on your part, you start going, "I'll do that."Gotta love the unsolicited OM slam. "At least we didn't give our song to Outback"! Why does it always gotta come down to steaks vs. higher education? In case you haven't turned on your TV in a few months...
Posted at 4:12 PM in Commercial Appeal, Video
Tags: The New Pornographers
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What I find funny is that the University of Phoenix bought the naming rights to the stadium in which the Arizona Cardinals play, so it's the University of Phoenix Stadium (or whatever) and it sounds like the University of Phoenix's football team plays there. What's more, the Cardinals used to play in Arizona State's stadium (called Sun Devil Stadium), so it sounds like they moved from one college stadium to another.
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the fact that they didn't know this was going to be aired nationally seems a bit fishy. i'm sure they got paid for a national commercial, not regional. just own up to it carl. everybody's got to make a buck.
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I find it meta-humorous that the U Of P wants this poppy track to support their claim that their services will help you advance in the world - yet the accompanying lyric to said song suggests apathy and underachievement: "we arrived too late to play the bleeding heart show".
Well, I thought it was funny. So what?
DwD
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Well, now we know his stance on Wal-Mart!
Put, I dunno, 'Mass Romantic' in a Target ad, maybe?
Or perhaps (and this is a good one) 'Bones Of An Idol' between Bones and American Idol?
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dear listerine,
please considering licensing "my slow descent into alcoholism" by the new pornographers for use in your advertisements.
love,
us
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If what he says is true (which I don't believe for a second) then they need to be a little more informed or get a better business manager.
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Ohhhhh SNAP!!!!! New Pornos be dissin Of Montreal!!! This goin' be big just like Tupac vs B.I.G!!! Awww shiiitt!!!!... Can't wait to hear some New Pornos and Of Montreal tunes on Kay Slay's shit, yeah!!!!
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i saw this on music snobbery on monday! where's the credit??
at the end of the day bands make $ from licensing. wave o' the over-saturated future.
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Carl seems like all around respectable dude. But this whole things stinks a little bit. Your official stance is that you support the U of P? I guess integrity is the wave o' the rosy-coloured-glasses-remembered past.
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Speaking of Commercial appeal, what about The Electric Version advertising General Electric.
Also, The New Pornos already had licsenced Use It for the intro of CBC's the Hour.
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how the hell is university of phoenix more respectable than outback? also, i find it hard to believe that he had no idea.
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yeah, you can never really tell with ol' A.C. I've had the opportunity to interview him a couple of times (being that he's from my hometown and all) and it's tough to get a straight answer from him.
but i believe him, for whatever reason. it's not like he was apologizing for the commercial. he even said he'd probably do it again (in his typical, quasi-commital kinda way).
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all this, and, well, some of us might know some people who attained post graduate degrees from uop and actually gained from them. i know of at least two. my older brother and sister.
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I couldn't give two shits about the University of Phoenix, but I've been trying to find that song since the commercial first aired.
So now I credit them with turning me onto the New Pornographers.
Who cares if the university sucks or what Carl did or didn't know?
I'm just glad I heard it.
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Amen! I think it's great if a commercial leads viewers to discover the music of the New Pornographers. The NPs get little to no play on the radio and MTV, so commercial licensing is a great way to get their music into the ears of the public. And, it's often one of the best sources of income for lesser-known artists like the NPs. I say keep doing whatever you need to do to keep making great music!
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