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Of course, it’s hard to be a “sellout” when you were never really “indie” to begin with. But, in Madonna’s case, there has usually been at least some modicum of “street cred” to all that she’s done thanks to her pre-fame years spent in New York as a ruffian determined to “make the scene.” In short, determined to sell out. After reaching a new stratosphere of fame with her sophomore album, 1984’s Like A Virgin, Madonna did just that, literally selling out venues across America with her inaugural tour, appropriately called The Virgin Tour.
As the decades went by, Madonna maintained her reign over pop music, accordingly garnering the nickname “the Queen of Pop.” Yet, despite being the most famous woman in the world (sorry Taylor Nobody), Madonna has done relatively few major endorsements (although more unofficial endorsements, ranging from Mike and Ikes to Vita Coco, also produced “the Madonna effect” in terms of drawing attention to an otherwise underlooked brand). In fact, her most famous endorsement deal—the one with Pepsi—didn’t last more than two airings before the company pulled the plug over her controversial “Like A Prayer” video. Before that, Madonna made her first advertising debut with a heavy-hitting company in 1986, starring in a series of Mitsubishi ads…that only aired in Japan. That way, it seemed, Madonna could still maintain her aura of what she would call “artistic integrity.” It also made her very “Regina George-esque” before that Mean Girl’s time (“I hear she does car commercials…in Japan”). A 1987 ad for Mitsubishi’s hi-fi VHS player also finds Madonna playing with one of her favorite taglines, additionally wielded during her 1985 The Virgin Tour: “Dreams come true.” Except rather than being about the blood, sweat and tears she gave to become a star, in this context, it’s all about the ultimate post-neoliberal dream: owning a bunch of expensive shit meant to prove your worth and importance.
This, among other ads Madonna would lend her name to, were what Prince would call a sign o’ the times. Specifically, the 80s times. For it seems no coincidence that the confluence of events that would allow Madonna and the Decade of Excess to collide in such a way that she became the most recognized pop star in the world would serve to further buttress the “glamor” of capitalism. Like many, Madonna has flirted shamelessly with the system, while also insisting that money is hollow and meaningless (see: the “irony” of the “Material Girl” video and her endless espousal of the tenets of Kabbalah after 1996). This latter sentiment, however, is not exactly in line with becoming the face of a bank. Which, of all the entities Madonna has promoted, has to be the least punk rock thing she’s ever done. A far cry from the defiant, anti-establishment girl she claimed to be upon first arriving in New York in 1978. And yet, is she really so different now from the girl who once said in a pre-fame “art movie” called In Artificial Light, “I’ll do anything for money. ‘Cause money is my love.” She came up with the dialogue herself, and it seems to still hold true now, based on her reaching the apex of showing that money really is her love by endorsing a bank. And, randomly enough, a Brazilian one. At least go for an Argentinian bank for a vague Evita correlation. That would have a bit more relevance to it than Madonna promoting Itaú
Madonna’s gradual advertising evolution leading up to this moment was perhaps indicative that it would come down to this eventually. Her multimillion dollar endorsement deal with a juggernaut like Pepsi in 1989 signaling not only that she had come a long way since 1984 and being “just about the music” by lending her face to an advert for MTV (during its “I want my MTV” era), but also that she was now willing to freely admit to being a shill by doing such ad work in the U.S. No longer was it all hush-hush “commercials in Japan” fare. Granted, the Japan work would reanimate again in 1995, when she exhibited early signs of her “Nothing Really Matters” era by appearing in samurai attire (with a couture-y twist) to hawk a sake called Jun Legend for Takara. Likely interested in Madonna because the name had “legend” in it.
Directed by one of Madonna’s 90s mainstays, Alek Keshishian, the surreal ad features Madonna slaying a gold dragon to gain access to her precious glass of sake, so committed to its goodness that she even wrote lyrics about it that go: “How can I be pure, when all the strength I have is breaking me?/How can I be sure, where is this road I’ve chosen taking me?” She then insists while looking straight into the camera, “I’m pure. Jun Legend.” It’s nothing short of pure irony to make such a declaration and name-check a brand in the same sentence, but Madonna manages to do it with a perfectly straight face. Such is the motivation of money.
Though it wasn’t always motivational enough to “muzzle” what she really wanted to say in her art. Which brings us back to the Pepsi commercial (wherein she used similar “Dreams come true” language by urging the viewer/younger version of herself, “Make a wish”). Not only because the video for “Like A Prayer” was in direct defiance of the brand’s “wholesomeness,” but because, in addition to being busy promoting some big corporate names in the 80s, she still found time to do no-frills PSAs. Usually ones endorsing safe sex (“Use a condom, it may be the most important thing you ever do”). Namely, a 1988 PSA that was part of the Musicians For Life campaign. As usual, Madonna was among the few famous people willing to not only advocate for AIDS research, but to discuss the disease at all. In fact, it’s a wonder Pepsi or Mitsubishi would want to work with her at all based on her outspoken advocacy for gay men and the AIDS crisis. For it can’t be emphasized enough just how much no one wanted to be associated with such a “thing.”
In the mid-90s, as resources for AIDS victims improved, so, too, did Madonna’s sense of “quality control” with regard to advertising ventures. Case in point, her Spring 1995 Versace ad campaign, photographed by Steven Meisel. It was in this instance that she shifted more toward a “strictly haute couture” path. Opting for “class” advertising as opposed to “trash” advertising. Perhaps because the boon of her finances allowed her to be more selective with such projects. Madonna’s renown for being ahead of the curve on sensing the next wave of the future also manifested in 2001, when she allowed Microsoft to use “Ray of Light” in a commercial for Windows XP. Apparently, allowing three years to lapse since the song was on the charts was sufficient for Madonna to translate the track into something more directly commodifiable. Indeed, at the dawning of the next century, it seemed as though Madonna was “activated” anew into more incessant advertising action. There was also the 1999 Max Factor commercial just before the Microsoft one, with the former allowing her to play up her persona as a diva and a flirt. Starting with a makeup artist telling her about how “luscious” Max Factor Gold is, Madonna “jokes” after the lipstick is applied, “If I weren’t me, I’d kiss me. But I am me…and that’s a tragedy.” Cutting to her on set doing a scene that “requires” her to kiss a hot guy, “Ray of Light” plays in the background here as well. When the director yells, “Cut!” Madonna and the man in question keep kissing anyway, with Madonna finally turning toward the camera to protest, “Hey, I wasn’t finished!” before then going back to kissing him. Of all her ads, it’s arguably the most…on-brand. With her natural persona shining through in ways that it was usually only able to in the voting PSAs she did for MTV in the early 90s.
The 00s, however, appeared to mark a brief period when she was okay with the simple use of her song in a commercial in lieu of actually full-on endorsing a product with her appearance. Like the Windows XP one or, two years later, the Estée Lauder commercial for a perfume called Beyond Paradise. During which not only did her song, “Love Profusion,” play throughout, but the exact same backdrop and aesthetics from the Luc Besson-directed video appeared. Which makes sense as he also directed the Carolyn Murphy-starring commercial the same day as Madonna’s video shoot. Clearly, Madonna didn’t want to “overly” endorse the fragrance by actually lending her own likeness to the ad. The same year, however, she found Gap “worthy” enough of her direct involvement by not only showing up in the commercial with Missy Elliott, but also reworking one of her then new songs from American Life, “Hollywood,” to incorporate her 1985 hit, “Into the Groove.” Ergo, “Into the Hollywood Groove” marking the still germinal trend of mashups in music. What’s more, with Gap, Madonna returned with a vengeance to her ultra-corporate, appeal-to-the-everyman campaigning. Indeed, that return was met with more than a hint of cynicism at the time, with one reporter for The Guardian remarking of the partnership, “The singer, who turned fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier into a household name when she wore one of his cleavage-enhancing corsets, will be shown extolling the virtues of a comfortable pair of cords in the new advert.” To boot, Madonna showed the first signs of no longer being “ahead of the curve,” so much as lagging behind it, what with Gap reaching its “edgy” zenith in the mid-90s.
Nonetheless, there were still moments when Madonna could bring her distinctive brand of sardonic humor to a commercial. As she did when she teamed up with her husband (once upon a time), Guy Ritchie, for a 2001 short film called Star, from BMW’s The Hire series. It marked a more unconventional approach to advertising by tapping respected auteurs to direct ten-minute segments (each starring Clive Owen) highlighting the performance capabilities of various BMW models. In Madonna’s “vignette,” that was the M5, showcased in all of its glory to the tune of Blur’s “Song 2” before Madonna was embarrassingly ejected from it in front of a slew of eagerly anticipating vultures (a.k.a. paparazzi).
As for what was next on Madonna’s list of major mainstream brands to work with after Gap, it turned out to be Motorola. But this time, her motives were far more than just financial: she wanted to debut the lead single from 2005’s Confessions on a Dance Floor, “Hung Up.” With the premise being to show a slew of famous musicians cramming into a phone booth together (including Madonna, her Maverick protégée, Alanis Morissette, Little Richard, Questlove and Iggy Pop, among others), it was meant to play up how the ROKR model was the first to incorporate the iTunes media player. Making it easy to keep all your favorite music “in one place.” At the end, a Notorious B.I.G. lookalike approaches the already packed booth so that Madonna can deliver the line, “Biggie! No!” Probably too “fatphobic” for the present, but it delivered in ‘05.
Madonna ramped up her corporate cheerleading in 2007 when she designed an exclusive line of clothing for H&M called, what else, M by Madonna. The ad campaign included not only an onslaught of print media, but also another offbeat premise that placed Madonna in the role of “girlboss” before that became such a vexing term. A woman in charge who demands that other women dress for the same “obey everything I say” part accordingly (making it something of a riff on the Madonna wannabe concept when the girl in the commercial emerges wearing the same outfit as M).
In 2008, a Sunsilk commercial with the tagline, “Change up your look. Make your hair happen” aired while soundtracked by Madonna’s lead single from Hard Candy, “4 Minutes.” It was a fitting catchphrase that played into the numerous images of Madonna in her various guises and hairstyles that flashed across the screen throughout the ad. Except, of course, her ass would never use something as pedestrian as Sunsilk to achieve these looks. In point of fact, Madonna would be more inclined, these days, to use a product of her own making.
So it was that, eventually, Madonna decided it was time to endorse her very own brand: MDNA Skin. While Madonna had named brands after herself or moments in her career before, including Material Girl and Truth or Dare, both instances involved shilling the products exclusively at Macy’s, which meant all the limitations that went with that. Whereas with MDNA, Madonna started her own truly standalone brand, which could be sold in different stores across the globe, in addition to online at MDNASkin.com. Launched in 2014, the skincare line would offer a number of opportunities for M to create tailored ad content for the products. And, eerily enough, it’s the 2017 “Express Yourself” campaign that echoes the same shtick presented in this Brazilian banking commercial. For just as she says, “I’ve had the opportunity to embody many personas. To express myself. But always remain myself,” so, too, does she say something similar in the ad for Itaú: “I’m always reinventing myself. So that I can keep being myself.” And, one supposes, to keep being herself, she needs to keep advertising something. It’s simply all part of the Madonna and capitalism “synergy.”
When the singer casually mentioned to concertgoers at her November 19th date of The Celebration Tour in Paris that she had filmed something “the other day” at Opéra, fans were briefly hopeful that it might signal new music because, surely that must mean a music video. Alas, it turned out to be this odd, extremely non sequitur commercial for Itaú. As if Madonna places her own money in such a bank. Moreover, why film her segment in Paris if it’s meant to promote something Brazilian? Everything about it makes absolutely no sense, including talk of her constant reinvention in relation to this. Unless, of course, she wants to advocate for the kind of illicit banking that requires reconstructive face surgery to hide one’s original identity. The only way in which it could make sense, if one really wanted to reach, is that Madonna saw something resonant in the ad Sylverster Stallone did for Itaú’s Uniclass option. A name that, yes, suggests some kind of utopian ideal—as though we can all live in the same financial class. With Uniclass designed for “medium-income clients,” the campaign’s tagline went: “Make it to the top.” So it is that Madonna could likely get on board with a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” sentiment such as that. Except that her campaign is for Itaú full-stop, not its Uniclass sector.
Regardless, Madonna finds something to tap into about the “product” by announcing at the end, “I am made of the future.” More telling declarations about how she has no plans to go anywhere, even despite the reaper trying to take her life prematurely over the summer. It’s an assertion that speaks to her 2019 song, “Future,” from Madame X, during which she warns, “Not everyone is comin’ to the future/Not everyone is learning from the past.” And what the pop star has learned from her own past, evidently, is that advertising still pays. Even if the money and the ad itself are utterly superfluous for Madonna.
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Genna Rivieccio
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