Iggy Pop-ular

Iggy Pop is to be named a ‘Living Legend’ later this year by the Marshall Classic Rock Roll of Honour. News of the honour mentioned his punk rock roots, hits such as Lust For Life and The Passenger, and of course his role this year in adverts for car insurer swiftcover.com, and in particularly the kerfuffle over the fact that swiftcover.com did not insure musicians when the ads first aired – they do now, by the way.

Being at the sharp-end of swiftcover.com’s PR this year, Brazil has seen first hand the response to Iggy’s advert, some of which has been ‘mixed’, to put it politely. Some fans are outraged, suggesting that Pop has sold-out, whilst others actually get the irony of the proto-punk rocker selling car insurance.

Some woefully uneducated people don’t know who the man is and don’t like the fact that Iggy’s naked torso is invading their prime time TV. It is unclear whether they are jealous of the 62 year old former hell raiser’s muscled physique, or just desperate to get on with the next episode of Midsomer Murders.

The controversy has been the subject of much media comment and opinion on artists selling-out and the art of selling, citing everything from ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon’s butter advert to American comedian Bill Hick’s oft-quoted: "If you do an advert then you are off the artistic register forever."

Recently comedian Sean Hughes included a rant in his stand-up show about Iggy selling-out by selling car insurance, although Hughes was even more unhappy about Stephen Fry doing the voice-over for the red telephone in another insurance ad. This was all included in a newspaper story about Hughes’ string of London dates, presumably to drum up ticket sales?

Being slagged off by a comedian must rank as some achievement in seeping into the public conscious, so as far as swiftcover.com advertising is concerned, that’s job done. Sales for swiftcover.com have increased substantially this year, partly as a result of the adverts, and many of those who have moaned about the ads have been prompted to check out swiftcover.com and have been swayed by the low cost insurance on offer.

Iggy himself isn’t really bothered, telling French news that he enjoyed the ads and didn’t give a sh*it about the controversy, whilst his latest album Preliminaires has sold better than any Iggy Pop album of recent times.

And now, even better than being named a Living Legend, Iggy as been immortalised as a Lego Rock God in the new Rock Band video game.

So, with all this activity and coverage, Iggy Pop must be inline for some kind of award as man of the year, and the inside word is that the man himself is the happiest he has been for years. Anybody that has a problem with this should take Iggy’s advice in the swiftcover.com ad, and ‘Get a Life’!