“She’s made mercantilism its own aesthetic”
Despite being “reluctant to throw nitromethane into the Gaga fire,” the Los Angeles Times has named Lady Gaga’s video for “Bad Romance” the “Advertisement of the Year” for featuring no less than ten products—booze, high-end audio gear and stiletto heels–in five minutes. “No other advert, print or video or Web, no tweet or blog, billboard or word of mouth, has so thoroughly knitted itself into my merchandise-buying neurons,” Dan Neil writes. “Canny and cagey and completely engaged in the business of business, brand Gaga is the first white artist I can think of who has embraced aspirational, label materialism with the kind of gusto shown by hip-hop artists such as Kanye West and Jay Z.” Gaga represents a new frontier in commercialism, Neil concludes: “Lady Gaga is so beyond any kind of embarrassment that she’s made mercantilism its own aesthetic.”