Product Placement

[mike09]

I'm very curious as to why there's product placements in this song. In fact, there's a high amount of references to pop culture in this song too. Does anyone have any clue why?

[asperjack]

I'm very curious as to why there's product placements in this song. In fact, there's a high amount of references to pop culture in this song too. Does anyone have any clue why?

Yeah, good point, why would the narrator care to mention brand names while telling the story of an alien abduction? Here's one thought.

Maybe as our culture continues to become more and more commercialized, brand names are increasingly imbedding themselves into our brains and we may tend to think we want/need brand name goods, whether it's food, clothes, etc. Maybe the lyrics are showing us that the narrator, like most of us, placed too much importance on material things (Krispy Kremes, Birkenstocks, etc.) and quick highs (DMT, X, etc.) so that his brain wasn't concentrating on what it should have been: the all-important message.

[rogerdoger]

Yeah, good point, why would the narrator care to mention brand names while telling the story of an alien abduction? Here's one thought.

Maybe as our culture continues to become more and more commercialized, brand names are increasingly imbedding themselves into our brains and we may tend to think we want/need brand name goods, whether it's food, clothes, etc. Maybe the lyrics are showing us that the narrator, like most of us, placed too much importance on material things (Krispy Kremes, Birkenstocks, etc.) and quick highs (DMT, X, etc.) so that his brain wasn't concentrating on what it should have been: the all-important message.

I like that idea...

[mike09]

me too, that was a good response

[lizbiz]

The only other Tool song to make pop culture references or product placement is Hooker With a Penis. It's about an ignorant fan, which IMO is what Rosetta is about. Rosetta is about ignorance and false enlightenment through drug use. Both songs are about fans mixing up the message.

[JE Mack]

i think the brand names are there so you can imagine the story better. he's not just eating donuts, he's eating krispy kremes. i can picture it better with that info. the guys probably got raspberry jelly on his face. and just say "krispy kremes" and i feel a little sick (it's just too much sugar). say "donut" and i don't get the same response. same thing with "sudafed". a little more descriptive than "cold medicine". what's wrong with us "knowing" brand names? how does being familiar with brand names that imply the narrator places "too much importance" on brand names?

[swampyfool]

Yeah, good point, why would the narrator care to mention brand names while telling the story of an alien abduction? Here's one thought.

Maybe as our culture continues to become more and more commercialized, brand names are increasingly imbedding themselves into our brains and we may tend to think we want/need brand name goods, whether it's food, clothes, etc. Maybe the lyrics are showing us that the narrator, like most of us, placed too much importance on material things (Krispy Kremes, Birkenstocks, etc.) and quick highs (DMT, X, etc.) so that his brain wasn't concentrating on what it should have been: the all-important message.

Precisely. A "Vicarious" (if you will) twist in the narrator's frame of reference has caused his inability to percieve the true meaning of an experience of such gravity. Society as a whole is so caught up in what we percieve to be the permanent order (corporate rule), that we are so quick to try to classify the world in terms of that order instead of classifying that order in terms of the world. And thus, we tend to miss the point . . .

[asperjack]

Precisely. A "Vicarious" (if you will) twist in the narrator's frame of reference has caused his inability to percieve the true meaning of an experience of such gravity. Society as a whole is so caught up in what we percieve to be the permanent order (corporate rule), that we are so quick to try to classify the world in terms of that order instead of classifying that order in terms of the world. And thus, we tend to miss the point . . .

Interesting and better than I put it.

[swampyfool]

i think the brand names are there so you can imagine the story better. he's not just eating donuts, he's eating krispy kremes. i can picture it better with that info. the guys probably got raspberry jelly on his face. and just say "krispy kremes" and i feel a little sick (it's just too much sugar). say "donut" and i don't get the same response. same thing with "sudafed". a little more descriptive than "cold medicine". what's wrong with us "knowing" brand names? how does being familiar with brand names that imply the narrator places "too much importance" on brand names?

Because the shit covered in this story is just plain BIGGER than brand names. Our narrator is so intent upon classifying this experience that BRIDGES WORLDS into a Corporate America cross-reference that he never had a chance to understand the enormous gravity of what he saw/heard . . . SENSED. Corporate America is temporary and illusory; a giant distraction that pulls the human attention away from the realities of the world and lulls our outrage into a sort of defeated, blissful consumerism. Please, bear with my generalizations for a moment. Typically, a person who eats acid and spies on supersecret military installations in hopes of exposing government lies about extraterrestrials is also a person who recognizes and detests the corporate infrastructure. Yet even such a counterculture deviant is reduced to brand names and TV characters when trying to tell a story that should transcend such flimsy attempts at created reality. This song does much more than reference the narrator's inability to properly quantify this experience. In my interpretation, it wonders how society will ever recover from this divisive illusion if even the counterculture is viewing the world through the eyes sold to him by the enemy- even when faced with otherworldly experiences . . .

I realize that some of this vague, but I'm in a rush to meet a train, so ask about any lapses in clarity and I'll do my best to enumerate . . .

[JE Mack]

successfullypriedopen, i saw your name and new exactly where you'd go before i even read your post. the name says it all. i hope maynard doesn't really think like this because if so i've wasted too much time on tool's music. however, he probably does and i probably have. nevertheless, IMHO, sometimes a krispy kreme is just a krispy kreme. every lyric doesn't have to be maynard's (or the band's) arrogant way of attacking someone else or a claim to intectual superiority. at least i hope not. if i'm wrong, i seriously regret wasting 13 years listening to this band.

[swampyfool]

successfullypriedopen, i saw your name and new exactly where you'd go before i even read your post. the name says it all. i hope maynard doesn't really think like this because if so i've wasted too much time on tool's music. however, he probably does and i probably have. nevertheless, IMHO, sometimes a krispy kreme is just a krispy kreme. every lyric doesn't have to be maynard's (or the band's) arrogant way of attacking someone else or a claim to intectual superiority. at least i hope not. if i'm wrong, i seriously regret wasting 13 years listening to this band.

But it's not just a Kripy Kreme. It's a Krispy Kreme, it's a Birkenstock, it's the X-Files, it's Jackie Chan, it's Isabella Rosalini, it's the Matrix, it's Uncle Martin . . . and that's just the first two stanzas. This is only the second time that I can recall that Tool has used such excessive product placement (or product placement at all)- the other being Hooker With A Penis (as Lizbiz pointed out), and in that case it was certainly used to make a point about the intellectual inferiority of the subject. However, I don't think that Maynard is trying to make any judgements of intelect in this song . . . Read my posts before you flame me.

That said, if classifying social order in terms of the world instead of classifying the world in terms of social order is such a repulsive notion for you, then maybe you are wasting your time, but not just by listening to Tool . . .

[M.Luther]

uhh..this isn't a new concept for tool you guys.
http://stashbox.org/uploads/1153255526/dew.jpg

[swampyfool]

uhh..this isn't a new concept for tool you guys.
http://stashbox.org/uploads/1153255526/dew.jpg

HAHA!

[JE Mack]

hey successfullypriedopen. yes, i get what you are saying and yes, i did read your post. i just disagree with you. still. even after you insulted me i disagree.

[panocha21]

It's fairly obvious the protagonist is a simpleton. Pop culture is usually embedded deep into their minds. Think of kids for a second. They speak in commercials.