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Lou Reed appeared at the recent Cannes Lions adfest (he’s a bit like Keith Richards, a miracle of survival owing to some substance or other) and Wieden+Kennedy London’s excellent Welcome To Optimism blog has exhumed an old Honda scooters ad featuring the great man.
They date it to the 1970s but I suspect it’s later than that, as W+K didn’t start until 1982.
But it’s a great ad. And Lou was one of the artists you remember from the first time you heard them; he made a difference just like Dylan, Bowie, the early Motown ensemble, Otis Redding, Prince.
Anyway, whenever this was, it’s a bloody sight better than most of the stuff you see now. It can’t be that difficult: a good idea and a camera that can shoot straight.
You’re right. The ad is from 1984. The campaign was created by the legendary Jim Riswold whose justification for the odd choice of celebrity endorser was, “I wanted to meet Lou Reed.”