In case you don't follow this sort of thing, the military spends big dollars on advertising. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.4 billion (yes, with a B) has been budgeted to the Department of Defense for recruiting/advertising. I guess convincing people they should sign up for an organization that treats them like shit and then ships them halfway across the world to die for reasons that change every day requires a pretty slick ad campaign.
And of course, where do you launch a slick ad campaign but at the Super Bowl? The Air Force premiered a new ad showing how flying planes that drop internationally-banned cluster bombs (you know the kind, so deadly and horrific the rest of the world has agreed to stop using them) is really just like skateboarding. And you kids love the skateboarding, don't you?
To seal the deal, the Air Force hired 56-year-old Salt Lake City resident Kem Kraft to write a cool song for them. The only problem? He didn't write a song, he simply played "Fell in Love With a Girl" by the White Stripes. And they weren't too happy about it, releasing a statement saying: "the White Stripes take strong insult and objection to the Air Force Reserve presenting this advertisement with the implication that we licensed one of our songs to encourage recruitment during a war that we do not support."
Kraft claims he's never heard of the White Stripes (odd how a guy who makes his living writing music has never heard of possibly the biggest breakout band of the past decade), but his excuse sounds a lot more like a high school student who plagiarizes their homework and then claims they've never heard of this "Encyclopedia Britannica" of which you speak.
Compare for yourself -- Air Force ad (after the end of another commercial...youtube and all):
Slightly more original White Stripes video for "Fell in Love With a Girl":
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