Advertising and Real Hip Hop

First of all I wanna make a few things clear to make sure that you fully understand what I mean when I say Hiphop, Hip Hop or hip-hop or when I'm talking about the Elements:

Hiphop (consciousness) – our unique spirit, our unique collective consciousness, the creative force behind Hip Hop’s elements. The name of our lifestyle.
Hip Hop (culture) – the performances and description of the elements (outlined below)-
hip-hop (product) – rap music product and those things associated with it.
Hiphop Kulture is the name of our community of consciousness

The Hip Hop Elements, as expressed by the Temple of Hiphop are the study and application of these art forms:

Basic Elements:
Breakin - street dance forms
Emceein - rhythmic talk, poetry and divine speech
Graffiti - street calligraphy, art and handwriting
Deejayin - rap music production and radio broadcasting
Beat Boxin - body music and body language

Street (Inner-city) Elements:
Street Fashion - Urban trends and styles
Street Language - Urban communication, slang and dialect
Street Knowledge - Ancestral wisdom, common sense and codes to survive inner-city life
Street Entrepreneurialism - Fair trade and business management"

The Gospel of Hip Hop; 2nd Overstanding - The Refinitions


So we gonna focus on Street Entrepreneurialism today, specially on Hip Hop influenced advertisings.

On my way home I found a "Blick am Abend" (a free daily which is financed by advertisings) in the bus. While flipping thru the pages I bumped on the follwing advert:



Camel advertising, "Blick am Abend" 25.11.2010

For those that don't know who "Dare" was - Sigi Von Koeding aka "Dare" was a swiss graffiti artist that passed away in March this year. He was the first graffitiwriter in Switzerland with an own art gallery and there are various things that bear the hallmarks of Dare.

After flipping a few pages I bumped on another advert:

AXA Winterthur advertising, "Blick am Abend", 25.11.2010

As you might assume this is not an advertising for the next breakdance battle in town. AXA Winterthur is one of the biggest insurance companies worldwide and this dude doing a onehand freeze has nothing to do with the content of this advertising.

Then I recalled what kinda adverts I saw in the last couple of months.

There was this advert with these babys on roller skates dancing to an altered version of Sugarhill Gang's "Rappers Delight" by Evian, a company that earns millions every year by selling a free good: water.




There was also this car advert by KIA with big hamsters and Black Sheep's "The Choice Is Yours" (which is btw. an anti-drug, pro Hip Hop track) in the background:




And also a Hewlett Packard commercial for a new Notebook which was built in cooperation with Dr. Dre:



Why is that?!

As you know hip-hop is the best selling music genere of the last decade and Hip Hop is spread and performed all over the world.

So it's a good way to get peoples ATTENTION which is the first part of a common marketing rule called "AIDA".

Quote Wikipedia:
A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer.
I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits (instead of focusing on features, as in traditional advertising).
D - Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
A - Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_(marketing))

They are also trying also to reach certain target groups, probably young people from 15-30 years age.
Big concerns know exactly what they are doing, they use Hip Hop's elements to sell their products.

Should we be mad at them?

Well.. the way I see it is... In one way they are promoting Hip Hop by exposing it's elements and the products to the masses and allowing Hiphoppas to make a living out of that... on the other side they are not promoting Hiphop Kulture and Hiphop at all, they're only using Hip Hop elements and products (hip-hop) to increase their profit as long as they can.

...and now what?

I think Hiphoppas should ask themselfs how important Hip Hop really is to them and be more carefully and selective with what they chose to do.
Should Hip Hop promote harmful products? I don't think so...

Fact is, Hip Hop in advertisings is not a bad thing aslong as it is for the benifit of Hiphop Kulture.
Means to me, as long as it's promoting Hip Hop's true meaning in the end:
PEACE, LOVE, UNITY & (SAFLY) HAVING FUN
HEALTH, LOVE, AWARENESS & WEALTH

...because it's bigger than Hip Hop