Opinion: Iggy's adverts are so very, very wrong

What? Has it really taken you three years to come to this conclusion? What took you so long? Iggy burned up his legacy the minute he put pen to paper on the original contract with the advertisers. And I hate to burst your bubble about the Glastonbury gig but that stage invasion was completely stage-managed. Exactly the same thing happened at the Funhouse gig at Hammersmith in 2005 at exactly the same point in the show. Being there (at Hammersmith) at the time, I agree that the perceived chaos felt exciting but sitting and watching the Glastonbury footage on TV a couple of years later I was hit with the sinking realisation that "Oh dear, they do this every night, don't they?". The myth of the moment I experienced in 2005 was well-and-truly busted. If you look at the footage on You Tube, you can see he has even got a plain-clothes security guy shadowing him to make sure he doesn't get bashed about too much. Jeeez.... There was a time though when the Stooges were genuinely avant-garde, totally over the edge and didn't perform with any safety nets. They were a danger to themselves and their audience - both artistically and physically. Iggy was the ultimate anti-hero. But those days ended when the band disintergrated in a drugged up mess in 1974. Since then, Iggy has been nothing but a parody of himself. Back to the point though. As usual, Bill Hicks says it best: "You do a commercial, you're off the artistic roll call for ever, end of story. You're another corporate f**king shill, another whore at the capitalist gang-bang. If you do a commercial everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." PS. One bit of advice. If the commercials are now interfering with your enjoyment of the Stooges' records, do what you should have done three years ago and turn over when they come on.

which bit of Iggy Pop's original manifesto said he wasn't going to take what he could get? If you don't sell in, you don't sell out! people seem to confuse Iggy with a 'punk aesthetic' but that's not his rule book. The 'Sell out clause' was added by middle class journalists in the punk era. Also what's your views on John Peel's endless voice overs on ads and Henry Rollins ads for Apple? You can't have it both was mate, you can't download all the music for free, not play the songs on the radio and expect the artist to sit back and say 'well done'.

Charles Ives is now commonly recognised as the first great American Composer of 20th Century, indeed it is fair to say that Ives was probably the first great American Composer period... Charles Ives was also an Insurance Salesman!!! What the hell does it matter how Iggy gets a bit of spare cash, it is you that really needs to get a life, at the end of the day it's about the music and while the Stooges album "The Weirdness" wasn't that great, personally I enjoyed "Preliminaires" and the music is what matters....

iggy pop's music is still great, you just watch too much TV and look at adverts too much!!!!! .Retreat to the hills and get rid of your computer/TV/DVD. get some chickens and a goat and meditate on reality you'll realise it's not that important or suprising that an ex-junkie decided to cash in on his fame.

Wow, are you kidding me?!!!!!!! First of all, I would dare you to say any of this to Iggy's face. Second of all, your premise is completely wrong and misguided. You're projecting all of your proposed punk ideals onto him, when they have never had anything to do with the real man himself. The fact is, that his collected body of work was, is, and will always be f-ing fantastic. Period. To say otherwise, because of an advert that you don't happen to like, is complete and utter snobbery on your part. To compare the aesthetic to that of other ads shot by Annie Lebowitz, etc. is ridiculous. Btw, he has been shot by Annie as well before. You obviously don't know Iggy, who would have undoubtedly not liked you at all. Let the man live a life of success. After years of being spit on in the press by people like you, and not having any commercial success, it is so wrong for you to sit in judgement. They never played his songs on the radio, the masses never went out and bought Stooges records, so piss off if you think he''s selling out now. Iggy couldn't care less what your snobby ass thinks, anyway.

Didn't this terrible decline begin back in 2003 when we were presented with a song by "Iggy Pop feat. Green Day"? Wasn't the writing was on the wall then?

I agree with a statement above, if you never bought in you can't sell out i consider myself among the biggest iggy pop fans, i feel privileged to have seen the stooges three times 06/08/10 (and yes they do the stage invasion every night; doesnt seem any less exciting - if you're looking for vicarious thrill don't look for it at a gig like some mid-lifing parent with their 15 year old) personally, i had no problem with the first set of ads, and if they'd left it there i guess it would have been tasteful, the only problem i have with the recent couple are they just aren't funny and venture into that 'annoying ad' territory - still enjoy seeing him on TV, it was so strange to see him on TV when the ads started also agree with statements above that iggy and punk aren't symbiotic, punk was one of the myriad after effects of the last musical revolution spearheaded by bands such as the stooges, who i'd classify as the last important band, the DIY ideal has since been seen in anyone who played a song / instrument etc differently or even just those who picked up an instrument and gave it a go, its the natural progression of music really but the punk thing was entirely different i just think its kind of pathetic to attach your own disappointment (or feeling of abandonment) to an artist making a living (one who has done MANY advertisements before) as if you yourself had bought into something - and if you seriously cannot enjoy a stooges album or even anything iggy has produced because of a set of ads then i think its you who has sold out

Iggy's own words circa 1986- You can tempt me with a pretty girl You can call on me in fancy fur You can say, "just do it, everyone is" You can tell me that it's just showbiz You can turn my life from green to red But I ain't gonna be no squarehead Lydon claims he did the butter ad to fund a Public Image Ltd tour (incidentally a very underrated band) It's funny how defensive some of these comments are.

It's good to finally see someone draw a distinction between legitimately capitalizing on a career and real, live, actual sell-outs. Personally, I don't worry for a moment about artists who sell out because they're usually way past their primes. It's foolish to spend any time thinking about what artists do outside of their artistic careers, because you're bound to be disappointed. Artists brush their teeth, wake up with bed head, snort cocaine and scream at their girlfriends/boyfriends just like a lot of other people. And they like to make money, just like a lot of other people, so they do ads like this. In my mind, the only tragedy is that the ones who make real money from these ads are the ones like Iggy Pop, who don't really need any more money, instead of the upstarts, who have to work a lot harder now for a big-money record deal. They've got to be their own business managers and be on 10 different websites (Myspace, Fargotube, Reverbnation, etc. etc.) to keep going from one gig to the next.

There's plenty of other cultural icons who have made lots of money out of doing ads...can we have a blog about John peel's endless voiceovers for ads please?

The older you get the more conservative you become and Mr Pop is no different to anyone else. Everyone has a price at which point they are willing to perform.