Thursday, July 05, 2007

Taco Bell using ripoff of Eels song?

I'm a fan of Eels (the band), and a recent Taco Bell commercial for "Fourth Meal" caught my attention because it uses music that sounds suspiciously like the song "Souljacker, Pt. 1" from the Eels album Souljacker.

First, listen to the song.


Next, listen to the commercial. It took me a while to track it down online, but you can see it if you follow these directions. Go to FourthMeal.com, then click on the "Theatre" link on the bottom. After the Theatre has loaded, click and drag off the "World Stops" ticket and it will begin playing the commercial.

You might be thinking that this is no big deal because musicians routinely license their songs or re-workings of their songs for advertisements. But the singular force behind Eels (Mark Oliver Everett, or "E") absolutely refuses to license his work for commercials (see FAQ). So either E has changed his stance or Taco Bell is doing something untoward. Because their commercial's music is way too similar for it to be an accident.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow, that's terribly blatant.