Ever since the music video came of age there have been two ingredients that have been used time and time again – hot women or hot cars. Or even better, hot women and hot cars.
For some brands it’s easy. If you’re Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley or Porsche, you’ve had acts falling over themselves to put your cars in their videos. But life can be harder for some of the – how shall I put this – less sexy brands. If they want a piece of the huge audience they have to look at things slightly differently.
If you were to make a list of cars you’d expect to see in a music video, I bet you wouldn’t put Volvo very high up that list. As well built, safe and increasingly handsome as they are, Volvos aren’t the natural choice for accompanying a thumping dance track or rap artist.
Volvo XC60 With Swedish House Mafia
So they’ve decided to take a more low key approach by teaming up with the DJ trio Swedish House Mafia. As part of Volvo’s upcoming campaign for the re-modelled XC60 they’ve joined forces with the Scandinavian threesome to launch a new version of their first hit, “Leave the World Behind”.
While car placements in music videos can often seem clunky and obvious (I’m thinking The Saturdays and the Citroen DS3), the XC60 actually looks like it belongs in the barren yet beautiful regions of Scandinavia. There’s no high speed chase sequence and the XC60 doesn’t suddenly find itself lit up in neon lights. It’s a 4×4 in a rugged environment. Seems about right to me.
It’s quite a poignant track for the Swedish House Mafia too. This is the last time that the trio, Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello and Axwell, will work together before they head off to new ventures. They decided it was a good time to revisit their first track as well as bring in some fresh talent in the shape of young Swedish singer Lune. I think it’s worked out quite well.
So what do you think? Do you mind seeing cars like this in music videos? Or do you hate to see artists selling out?
