Fish fingers and Suggs
I had a rant at the telly last night when I saw Suggs advertising fish fingers. Nothing wrong with fish fingers, I love 'em and I'm quite fond of Suggs too. But I ranted away when I saw him selling his soul to the adman. Why couldn't he have been advertising something trendy, Doc Marten shoes, Brylcreem - anything but fish fingers? And when I finished my rant my boyfriend said he couldn't understand what I was going on about... and that's when it hit me. I was ranting because seeing Suggs on TV doing an advert, for something as mundane as fish fingers, meant the end of era as I knew it. It reminded me I'm not the 17 year old Madness fan I was once. I'm grown up and so is Suggs. It took a while for the realisation of the rant to hit home but when it did, a lump welled up in my throat and I had a bit of a moment.
If you haven't yet had your youth pulled to pieces by watching Suggs advertising fish fingers, it's online right here.
Comments
Mind you, "In The City" which they composed for it later turned up on the b-side of "Cardiac Arrest" and was a bit of a corker.
If memory serves, I'm sure they did a later one for Sekonda using a bastardised version of "Madness".
There are many people I really appreciate in Holland who do ads and I must admit I hated it at first.
On the other hand, people have to make a living. Don't know what I would do (although I wouldn't do fish fingers since they make me sick). I guess it's in line with the way Madness always have been. Quite down to earth (as opposed to all those bands who are busy making legends out of themselves. It always annoyed me that Madness weren't taken as seriously as The Specials (although I love the Specials). Madness never preached, the Specials did, they were quite rigid in their politics. Madness dealt with political issues, but without telling you what to think, which is far more difficult and stands the test of time.
But to come back to the subject, what does selling your soul mean? I go to work everyday, but my work doesn't say anything about me. I'm doing my job because I need to eat, but I am not my job. I think there's no real difference, why judge someone who's in the public in a different way? Would you end a friendship if a friend of yours appeared in an ad? Wouldn't be much of a friendship.
As a matter of fact, prefer Suggs doing ads to him being Bono.
Madness are still making great music and that's what matters, I guess.
But maybe I'm mjust rambling on, if so, take no notice and don't buy any fish fingers!
I nearly fell off my chair when Victoria Wood turned up in Asda. I think Asda is so crap.
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!