British supermarket chain Tesco signed up the Black Lips song Veni Vidi Vici for an advertising campaign, but dropped the deal at the last minute. It turns out they hadn’t scrutinised the lyrics closely enough beforehand…
“Tesco actually dropped us,” said guitarist Cole Alexander in an interview with Pitchfork. “They were gonna do an advertisement and they listened to the lyrics of Veni Vidi Vici and they got cold feet and pulled the plug on the ad, but they, like, made it and everything.”
It’s little wonder: the lyrics in question aren’t exactly jingle-friendly. Bassist Jared Swilley agrees. “They took it away because we mentioned Muhammad and Jesus and stuff. They even made the commercial and sent us the whole thing and we had it on a computer, but they pulled out because I guess they thought it was too controversial, so they had to pay us a small severance fee, which is fine. It’s nothing to them.” Perhaps we’ll never know if religious controversy can sell groceries…
