Yesterday I griped cantankerously about BobDylan.com daring to make some kind of video for his song “Like a Rolling Stone.” Today I’ve become aware of further new visuals for a Bob Dylan song, courtesy of the U.S. discount department store chain known as Kohl’s.
There are some differences. It is not one of Bob Dylan’s versions of the song, but instead a simple cover version by a female singer with a guitar. And it is about thirty-three seconds long. As commercials go, it is tasteful, not pushing the sale of anything in particular but just trying to create a general good feeling. One may understandably recoil from being manipulated, but Lord knows there are worse ways of being manipulated. You can watch it below, embedded via YouTube.
As you would see if you watched it, it portrays a young couple who are carefully decorating an apartment for Christmas. But it is not their own apartment, as we realize when they quickly exit and an elderly lady arrives home. She opens the door to her abode to see the lights and the tree and all the Christmas trimmings, and she is seen to choke up and get teary-eyed, as the young couple peek out of their own doorway, smiling.
All very feel-good and touching, and an astute use of the Bob Dylan tune. However—curmudgeonly Scrooge that it may prove me to be—I cannot help thinking that the real reason the old lady is beginning to cry is that the overriding thought in her head is the following: “Taking down all of this damn junk is going to kill me.”
Merry Christmas. (And it ain’t even Thanksgiving yet.)