Natural's Not In It

I saw my first Kinect TV ad last night, the Kinect Sports ad, this one:



Immediately - "I know that song.... that's Gang of Four"
Then "Wait a minute...Gang of Four used in a TV ad campaign? That's odd."

As I was sort-of singing along, half-remembering the lyrics as I went, it occurred to me that this is 'Natural's Not In It', maybe the most explicit example of Gang of Four's self proclaimed marxist/ anti-capitalist tendencies, a coldly cynical song song that I always took to be about social control via entertainment (the advert was on in the middle of X-Factor, btw, just saying).

Now, this is either a really unfortunate re-appropriation of a song for an ad campaign, or a stroke of subversive genius. I have no idea which. It can't just be an accident though, surely? Why? Well, because it's not just a song that's seemingly about the artificial desire for products being created by sexed-up marketing, it's a song that contains the line 'the body is good business'. In a Kinect ad. :)

The song, in all its glory... (Andy Gill is a hell of a guitar player)



and the lyrics:

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Coercion of the senses
We are not so gullible
Our great expectations
A future for the good
Fornication makes you happy
No escape from society
Natural is not in it
Your relations are of power
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attached

Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest
Repackaged sex keeps your interest

The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
The body is good business
Sell outs maintain the interest
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the perfect life

This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine
This heaven gives me migraine