When advertising agencies want a particular sound as the backdrop for their commercials, they go to companies that keep archives of original songs for public licensing. At these archives, there are usually many tracks that are created for the purpose of sounding similar to other artists. I know because I work part-time at such a company. My job there however is to weed out bad tracks, or songs that go beyond merely mimicking a band’s aesthetic, but actually plagiarize particular songs.
Apparently the company that Volkswagen outsourced for their new Polo commercial, called Sniffy Dog according to Diffuser.fm, didn’t do a very good job at pairing down their library because the song selected for the advert, “Whispers and Stories,” is ridiculously similar to the Beach House tune “Take Care.”
Beach House are a band that has a very particular sound, so it’s natural such companies would wanna gank their aesthetic choice for the purpose of adding a delicate, dreamy aspect to jingles which could potentially be picked up by advertisers looking to have their product wash over the viewer’s brain with warmth and hearth — but when you go so far as to lift an arpeggio pattern and re-write a chorus from a specific song (“I’ll take care of you” vs. “I’ll watch over you”), I’m sorry to say, but that’s plagiarism.
Sometimes this type of thing happens by accident, but it’s pretty apparent here that this is not the case.
UPDATE: Facebook post from Beach House on the matter:
Hate to have to address this VW ad story during our release week, but an important part of information wasn’t included in the news story. The ad agency actively tried to license “take care” from us for weeks, to which we politely declined. People’s comments/ anger should not be directed towards VW or us. It was the ad agency that made these moves. I hope this also clarifies to fans and non- fans just how “take care” and the vw ad song are related. We will release a proper statement weeks from now when we don’t have more interesting things to do/ talk about.
Check out the ad and the original Beach House track below.
Volkswagen Polo advertisement
Beach House — “Take Care”
May 18, 2012 at 4:34 pm, Chase Mather Turner said:
Wow.
May 18, 2012 at 4:37 pm, Gabriel Douglas Music said:
There is coincidence, and then there is this.
May 18, 2012 at 6:05 pm, Cornell Scott Blanchard said:
Very similar instrumentation and overall vibe but, in my opinion, they're different enough
May 20, 2012 at 5:03 pm, Alex DeLodge said:
Yeah Cornell, I tend to agree with you. The vibe and instrumentation, yes. And the arpeggiation is the same but the chord changes are different. I actually liked the ad music better. : ) The arpeggiation of for instance, F-C F-C, E-C E-C, D-C D-C, E-C E-C, repeat, is actually quite common and sounds really nice. I don't believe someone can corner the market with it.
–WK
May 31, 2012 at 9:40 pm, Alan Coopman said:
They tried to license the song "take care" and then came up with this. Pretty cut and dry…
May 18, 2012 at 4:37 pm, Gabriel Douglas Music said:
There is coincidence, and then there is this.
May 18, 2012 at 12:59 pm, Volkswagen ad agency intentionally rips off Beach House’s “Take Care” « alternapop.com said:
[...] ad agency intentionally rips off Beach House’s “Take Care” Deathandtaxesmag and diffuser.fm have some info on why the new Volkswagen ad uses a song that sounds remarkably just [...]
May 18, 2012 at 5:34 pm, Michael Domanic said:
Wow, one of the most shameless examples of plagerism I've ever seen in music.
May 18, 2012 at 5:34 pm, Michael Domanic said:
Wow, one of the most shameless examples of plagerism I've ever seen in music.
May 19, 2012 at 6:22 am, Ben Scalise said:
ughhh
May 21, 2012 at 6:36 am, Christopher Hussein Watts said:
just….wow
May 21, 2012 at 7:08 am, Ryan MacLean said:
More of this will happen. They are offering bands placement, and when they refuse they riff on the tracks.
May 21, 2012 at 2:10 pm, Justin Owen said:
Bastards.
May 24, 2012 at 1:25 pm, LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Daft Punk is Playing at My House’ plagiarized for a T.G.I. Friday ad | Death and Taxes said:
[...] are getting really careless lately. Only last week there was an upheaval over an obvious steal from Beach House in a Volkswagen ad, and now LCD Soundystem is inadvertently providing “inspiration” for [...]
June 07, 2012 at 1:54 pm, Volkswagen denies everything in regards to Beach House ripoff | Death and Taxes said:
[...] specific musical motif from “Take Care” and it’s totally obvious. Check out our original article on the subject for a deeper analysis, as well as another foul made by T.G.I. Fridays recently when they did the [...]
June 08, 2012 at 5:09 am, Rick Sunderland said:
BFD, both are ripping off Big Star.