That Volvo Commercial with Pete Seeger

 Last year Volvo started a new ad campaign for their XC90 SUV. In two variations of the ad, a young couple finds out that they are having twins. The ad shows the couple as harried and tired from taking care of twins and all the requisite running around like chickens with their heads cut off. In both ads, the safety features of Volvo. In the ad running frequently in the United States,  titled "The Parents," the couple is rushing out the door with the kids in the back seat and the auto-braking feature stops the vehicle before exiting a long blind driveway:

In the what I assume is a European version, the woman is driving on a long highway at night, obviously tired, presumably heading home from a late evening diaper run. In this ad the safety feature highlighted in the lane assist that pulls the car back safely into the proper side of the road:

Both ads end with the words, "The car that looks after you, like you look after others."

The first time I saw the commercial, I heard that distinctive voice of Pete Seeger. The song is "Hard Times in the Mill." an old labor song that Seeger recorded in 1956 for album American Industrial Ballads. Let me say straight off that I liked it right away. And every time I hear it, I smile, not because of the commercial, but because it's Pete Seeger's voice.

Some people don't like it. They think Pete wouldn't approve of his music being used for a commercial, let alone a commercial for what is a luxury vehicle. They speak knowingly of how a Pete of a half century ago didn't want to advertise for a cigarette commercial. They speak of Pete rolling in his grave. They speak of the car being sold to rich yuppies. Etc.

I don't care. I still smile when I hear that voice. Every. Damn. Time. As I wrote last year when John Prine died, Pete wanted us to sing together. Pete wanted us to participate together as humans. He once said, “There is something about participating; it is almost my religion. If the world is still here in 100 years, people will know the importance of participating, not just being spectators.”

And that participation is all the more possible because of the song. The song is about hard word, whether it's in the mill or in the job of being a parent. The worker in the song and the parents in the ad are the same in that regard.

Yes, the Volvo XC90 is pricey. The average lifespan of a Volvo is 20 years, a pretty good investment. The vehicle is also available as a hybrid model, something the environmentalist in Pete would probably admire. Also, Volvo has pledged that their entire fleet will be all electric by 2025, something of which Pete would also approve.

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Two possible monetary scenarios exist. One is that Seeger's estate, that is, his family sold the rights. What is wrong with that? The other is that the original publisher, Smithsonian Folkways, sold the rights. Given that the Smithsonian constantly promotes his music and the music of other traditions, the money earned from this can help them preserve this and other music. Again, what is wrong with that?

The truth is no one really knows if Pete would have done this. We don't even know if he owned the rights. Any suggestion is just conjecture.

The song is about hard work. The parents depicted are doing hard word. It's a good car that is safe for its owners and the environment. 

Fifty-Seven Channels and Nothing On

 I went to a seminary for one year in Iowa. Yeah, I know. I had a hard time imagining as a priest, too, which is why I never finished that path.

They had cable TV back then, something I had never heard of growing up in Chicago, but now that I think of it, it makes sense. Cable brought all the television networks to rural America.

 

When I moved to Wisconsin, I got cable TV which was really cool at the time. I could get both Chicago and Milwaukee stations.

 

It was a simple system. Two coax cables coming out of the wall to an A/B switch box that connected through one coax cable to the television. If the television didn't have a coax connector, you connected it to the antenna somehow. The A switch was one set of channels, the B switch was a different set.

 

The company was Racine Telecable. Racine actually had its own local channel. Over the years, Telecable was sold to different companies. The A/B switch went the way of the horse and carriage. In came the cable box with what Bruce Springsteen wrote had 57 channels and nothing on.

Cable’s selling point at the time was better reception, which was pretty much true except for days when the satellites they used to get their signals weren’t working well. 

The cable box brought HBO and Showtime. Eventually everything went digital. The A/B switch was obsolete and antenna screw connections all became coaxial connectors. People who have “cut the cord” and use antennas have the coaxial connection.

Converter boxes, modems, wireless routers and a myriad of “smart” home devices are all now used to watch television, turn on the lights, and lock the doors.

I’m not decrying anything here, because all these devices are pretty much treated the same throwaway way by all the companies. When my Racine Telecable A/B switch broke, I took it to the store. They gave me a new one. When my remote broke, they gave me a new one. When I followed the suit of all cable uses and got a cable box, and that broke, they took it, and gave me a new one.

It’s been that way in the industry for as long as I’ve been using their products. It’s been that way with every company, be it Telecable, Time/Warner, AT&T, and now, here in Illinois, Comcast and Xfinity.

I should have known better. Instead of them spending hours on the phone trying to figure out why the modem and my devices weren’t connecting to the Internet, I should have just told them, “My modem ain’t working.” I should have taken it to the store right away. Hell of a business model. Let the customer bring in the old device, give them a new one. Probably explains the prices they charge, too.

So I took the old modem to the store. They gave me a new one. I installed it myself. It works. I still have 57 channels and nothing on, but it is fast. Springsteen has grown older. So has television.