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Super Bowl Commercials 2011: Janis Joplin Is Spinning Faster Than The Wheels On Those Mercedes

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More: Super Bowl Commercials 2012.

Another automobile commercial during the Super Bowl, but with the ante raised a bit -- Mercedes brought out the voice of Janis Joplin singing her classic song, "Mercedes Benz," to narrate all the Mercedes of the nation escaping their garages and car ports (a nice touch) to head to a huge warehouse-like dealership.

But wait -- you took the wrong man's car. That's P. Diddy's Mercedes. And now he's out of bed and looking for his ride.

It's a good Super Bowl ad -- again going for nostalgia, with a song every one of us has belted out in a bar or during a long ride home. And humbling P. Diddy at the end was a nice touch; he's had a rough year, hasn't he? And now he's stranded in a corn field and can't find his silver Mercedes.

On a more interesting, historical note, I'm not sure Janis would have appreciated the use of her song in the ad. From the song's Wikipedia entry:

Joplin wrote "Mercedes Benz" together with the poets Michael McClure, Bob Neuwirth, and Joseph J. Murphy as a critical social commentary on how people relate happiness to money and material possessions. The song was originally written as something of a negative commentary about materialistic individuals who place too much value on items like a Mercedes-Benz. The song heavily reflects Joplin's view of what she saw as a materialistic world.

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