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From: langm120
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  • Indeed for a good cause, but this came out very odd. The marketing team should've thought of another way than this.

  • FUK

  • It doesn't properly sound like him.... I don't like it.... where did they get the authority to do this....?

  • 5 words: unlicensed use of his image

  • john lennon died in 1980. this was made in 2008... what gives?

  • what the fuck is this

  • Yoko gave it the okay to do so. In being a celebrity we are indeed entering a realm where celebrities must be conscious of possible posthumous representation of oneself. Take the Orville Redenbacher commercial, released in 2006. In being a pop icon, he was immortalized, and he was taken property by the masses. Some may call it disrespect. I do not know what to call it. Inevitable? Intriguing? A consequence of mass media needing to appease consumer desire for sensation? I don't know.

  • Comment removed

  • this is just fuckin weird.

  • Did fucking Yoko let this happen?

  • I don't get it.. o.o How is this disrespectful?

  • @FloppyEmperor Nothing about the message that this company is giving is disrespectful. But the fact that they're having a huge public figure that is dead promote it is unacceptable. Because John never had the approval and right to make this commercial because he is dead. That's why it's disrespectful.

  • this is just as vacuous as lennon's pathetic liberalism

  • Yoko Ono apparently approved this ad because of its charitable intent, which is very admirable, but the fake Lennon voice and file footage that doesn't match up with the overdubbed dialogue distracts from what the ad is trying to promote. When your message is lost on the people you're trying to reach, your ad is a failure. Like this one.

  • Were laptops around when Lennon was alive? It might be a sound alike and they just wanted to use Lennon's face because of his history with charity, but if it isn't...

  • Okay wow.. just wow.. This is absolutely in poor taste, I don't care if it's for a good cause, that's just horrible.

  • Why do we need to give every child a laptop? Let's focus on getting them all food, clothing, clean water, access to doctors. The basic stuff.

  • Creepy.

  • John Lennon was a caring and giving person, but this is awful the way they are using his image. it's helping ppl less fortunate than others but still he is gone and we should respect that. I hope congress gets involved and makes it legal to us the likeness of deceased celebs, or anyone not living for that matter. George Lucas is buying up some of the rights to dead celebs and is gonna make a movie, that is creepy.

  • I love John but that creeped me out.

  • Was anyone else thinking of the scene with him and Forrest Gump after they saw this?

  • I agree with most people on here. There are many more important issues at hand then supplying children with LAPTOPS. I mean, I bet there are kids that would take a meatball sub over a laptop any day of the week. Don't get me wrong, it's a great cause and I think it should be endorsed, but not by John Lennon. I think if someone were to go to such an extreme in advertising it should be used for something more important like world hunger or world peace. RIP John.

  • its a good cause but cmon... *facepalm*

  • I belive that John would be behind OLPC 100%.

  • were do they get wifi my friends?

  • i sound more like lennon than that thing

  • ʘ_ʘ WTF?!

  • if they can do this why cant they keep billy mays in the oxy clean commercials?! <-- kidding.

  • i just can't believe this is real. i feel like we need to tackle world hunger before we try to get wireless internet to everyone. and using john lennon? this is just absurd.

  • @djfrikalo

    Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime

  • This is even worse than the /watch?v=AqMjB7lXWQQ commercial.

    To the creators of this "commercial": FUCK YOU!!!!

  • This is a double edged sword. It's for a very good cause I'd like to think Lennon would've supported, but at the same time there's something just not right about using the dead for advertising without their consent.

  • If I was John Lennon, I'd kick at a TV screen when I saw this.

  • why did they think this was a good idea?

  • This is disgusting.

  • this is bullshit.

  • What there's no more powerful and influential people left in the world today so they get a poor dead guy to do it... SICK! Let Lennon's spirit rest in peace you corporate mongrels!! >:(

  • i heard his wife gave them permission to use his image and voice to do this commercial...i was extremely creeped out though when i saw it on tv. i was like "ummm...is'nt he dead?"

  • UGH. I HATE this ad. It's just... fucking offensive. A bad John Lennon impression and a complete ignorance towards what Lennon was talking about in his music. When I first saw this monstrosity, I thought it was a joke until the end bit. Fuuuuuu... I WANT IT GOOONE!

  • next up a george harrison comercial for a vaccum

  • they shoulda had Bono do it.

    he's a good humanitarian.

  • it doesn't really sound like him but it IS moving.

  • John might have objected to this if anyone had just taken his face and done it, but something tells me that he would have been very much in favor of it simply because Yoko gave her blessing. And that's not a diss at Yoko and her hold over John. It's a comment on the bond that the two of them shared.

  • disrepect for john lennon :(

  • Lol I haven't seen one positive comment about this commercial. Probably because there is nothing positive about it.

  • this is completely wrong. shame on whoever made this

  • This is sad... the only thing worse then the lip synching is the way yoko is still trying to destroy such an amazing man

  • instead of laptops why dont we give them food, or clean water? or less aids? this charity is stupid

  • It's creepy, though it's meant well. It makes me think of what might have been if John hadn't been murdered, had lived through the 80s to now, & how he would've loved the Internet. I can dream ...

  • I think I've commented this before but, it's CREEPING ME OUT! it's like taking a corpse and using it as a talking dummy

  • Beyond wrong of them to do it this way. Using his image I can see, as I believe this is something he would be behind, but having someone do a Liverpool accent and pretend to be him is just disrespectful.

  • Yoko Ono is a totally disaster...

    If you really loves John, as you said, try to don't repeat this again,, is a shame

  • i think using a dead man to promote something is sick, no matter how noble the cause.

  • I don't think the cause is great either. I think a poor underprivileged child needs more than just a laptop. Besides, when I was as young as the kid in the clip, I certainly didn't have a laptop or a computer! I got a laptop for college! How did this get authorized anyway?

  • I agree.. very disturbing potential of using historic idols to push a dumb agenda. Oh, a laptop can allow someone to do ANYTHING they want? I don't think so. And I don't think John Lennon would have come up with such tripe. By the way, when do I get one of these laptops??

  • I knew they used black majik! fucking weirdos

  • Disturbing on multiple levels.

  • This is the definition of exploitation...

  • I hate this commercial. I was never a huge Beatles fan... but since he's no longer with us I find this commercial highly offensive... especially the horrible person mocking his voice

  • well its not a mcdonalds commcercial but for a good cause..Imagine persuading every person that watches this because of someones voice but not just any voice John ennon's voice is the one speaking to you

  • That's kinda not the point... the point is THAT'S NOT JOHN LENNON'S VOICE. It's a horrible impersonator... I understand the message and one laptop per child seems like a good thing education wise blah blah. I just think that there must have been a better way to promote this

  • its 70% John lennon's voice good enough and better than nothing

  • wtf yoko?!?! and wtf whoever thought up this horrid idea?!?! i hate this commercial so much...hearing his voice made me shudder & cry; it certainly did NOT make me want to pull out my credit card & buy a laptop.SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO tasteless, and depressing :(

  • Youre not buying a laptop but helping a child in poor countries use one

  • Someone please explain to me what the hell John Lennon has to do with kids getting laptops? Yes, I caught the "imagine", but it's still reaching quite a bit.

    FAIL.

  • This is one of the worst commercials in history.

  • wow....that was horrible.

  • I think the thing that I find the most distasteful about this commercial using Lennon's likeness is that we have stepped beyond just using an image of a dead person to endorse a product. This now creates words that he never said while alive, imitates his voice to say those words and then doctors a video to make it look as if he were actually saying it (and doing a crappy job at that). Because Yoko endorsed it still doesn't justify putting words in John's mouth that he never said. Poor taste.

  • this dosent sound like him did yoko diced to do this

  • this is fucked up

  • This is a terrible disrespect to the dead.

  • If Lennon were alive I think he would be alright with the cause, but shit the man's dead, what the fuck is wrong with these people.

  • This is wrong The man is dead R.I.P

  • this is so fucked up

  • This is so awful. I think my soul just died a little. Holy shit.

  • Not cool

  • I saw this on Hulu and as it was running I thought it sounded like a Liverpool-esque accent that reminded me slightly of Lennon, then I saw his face...I know that giving 3rd world children laptops is a good thing....but having a deceased person endorse it....who can't defend or honor a decision he would or wouldn't have made....is just not wrong but just (shake head and look at ground)

  • i just saw it two minutes ago and thought the same exact thing

  • @Nickdude6 Agree. If Lennon were alive, he'd likely endorse a number of charitable projects, but he'd been dead 28 years when OLPC began. Thus, he had nothing to say about his image & vocal endorsement (?) gifted to OLPC by Yoko & Sean. JL was never into his art being used as commercialism. Now at the 30th anniversary of his murder, Yoko & Sean feel John would be cool with this?? More likely, he'd have held a concert to promote funding electricity for many of the kids' villages. IMAGINE.

  • What's next, JFK hawking Tide? "Ask not what your detergent can do your you, but what can your detergent due for your whites?" Fuck that.

  • ur funny start a utube show!

  • This is wrong.

  • how does Yoko, let alone his children feel about using a caricatured impression of his voice to hawk a fucking laptop? something about this aint right

  • This skeeves me out so bad.

  • Well, this, in my opinion, is horribly wrong. Extremely disrespectful to John Lennon. He is gone - to all of our dismay - and they definitely should not be trying to recreate his voice to make it sound like he endorces this. John Lennon was a man much greater than this. He didn't imagine kids recieving laptops - they're just a possession. Honestly, a line in the actual song "Imagine" stated 'Imagine no possessions'. He imagined generosity to all, world peace, and worldwide love. RIP John Lennon.

  • Now i feel bad about having a laptop..

  • nah - not him - fake cake

  • maybe its just me.....but its not that it dosent sound like him. it does but in a very cartoonish VERY exaggerated way...He sounds like a young groundskeeper willy...this is bullshit

  • WHAT THE FUCK??

  • Why all the psycho reactions?

    I thought it was really cool, it was like hearing him talking to us from the beyond. This campaign is something he likely would have embraced. Great idea.

  • WHAT THE SHIT.

  • Actually this is Lennon. It was taken from the song "imagine".

    Yoko shows full approval towards his appearance in this advert.

  • this cant be from "imagine"

    he says :"you can give a child a laptop" there were no laptops on the 70's mate

  • obviously some bits have been added in..

  • That's right. Of course, they also didn't have computers advanced enough to allow someone to digitally recreate your voice back then, did they?

  • Yoko split up The Beatles :\

  • How bout we give these kids food instead of laptops?

  • If Yoko did ok this , then she really has lost the bloody plot. It's wrong and not just because it's John. I adore him sure, but I also loathed the Gene Kelly car ad and the one with Bob Monkhouse.

    WRONG WRONG just WRONG! Let the dead rest!

  • It doesn't sounds like John

  • This is evil! To think what they can do to you after you've died. How about Jim Morrison in a Tampax commercial?

  • Amazing...

  • AWFUL!!!

  • hella creepy. why does everyone who imitates john lennon puts nasal on it.

  • It is Lennon's voice.. it was taken from the song "imagine"

  • This wasn't from the song "imagine" and I have no idea why you would make the assumption other then the 2 "imagine"s he said. They just got some footage of John where he said words that were needed for this sentence, and parts of word that was needed to say laptop.

  • Yes it was. Look it up.

  • I did look it up, 3 months ago.

  • I think...John wouldn't have done this...

    He wouldn't give into a commercial jsut to make money and supposedly "stop poverty with laptops"! Yay!

    No,

    With the way things are today, he would have tried to make a REAL difference in poverty.

    Figures Yoko okays this, first not allowing Julian to cover songs and letting Sean be a disgrace to his father's name...now this...yargh.

  • what the hell is up with the guys voice i mean everyone who does a john lennon voice makes him sound to animated or to cartoony like i know he had a weird voice but it wasnt the far out

  • good message. it'll never happen though. but a TERRIBLE way of advertising it.

  • o dear ...

    I think..it comes frist the tools and knowledge of how to use them but firts of all about food water and electricity

  • I don't know if John would've agreed with it, I mean, they're giving laptops for more of an educational purpose, it's not like saying 'Give an Ipod to every child' or anything....

    Still, I do think it was pretty bogus to use his image to promote laptops, no matter how or to whom they were aiming to give them to.

    And it's so blatant that that's not his voice, it just makes it that much worse.

  • haha the new kind of propaganda.

    dear uniformed youtube viewer

    bottom line is that this is bullshit. no one would sell their image after death, Oh and check the website, people are profiting off this and the sales of the donated laptops. Lennon would have protested this himself, its saying he supports giving a technology to the world but its all about makin money for amazon and paypal LOOK IT UP

    Thank you to all faceless corporations and their public servants

  • Actually, Yoko okayed this.

  • and? sorry but what does that have to do with this. Yoko is probably just half crazy by now and wants more money. The ones to blame (just like for Americas financial debacle) are stupid power/money hungry corporations that think and treat charity as nothing more than a PR stunt

  • if you ask me... i doubt yoko and john would still be together if he had lived... so her right should be null in void.. hey.. anyone see that simpson's episode where they had homer kill people so they can use their images? this made me think about that.. good cause tho.. but knee jerk reaction was that it was wrong... WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN YOKO INSTEAD OF JOHN???

  • This is the least cool thing I've seen in a long time.

  • What the hell's wrong with everybody?! I'm sure Lennon would be glad to do this if he were alive. I bet he'd be happy that he can do something like this even after his death. Everyone's an idiot that just wants to complain about anything just to try and get noticed. Human beings can be quite disappointing sometimes.

  • this is disgusting. yoko allowed them to do this. thees aren't his words. this isn't his voice. this makes me so mad... he wouldn't do this if he was alive. NOBODY should be allowed to make someone say something...they would do this with aperson that was alive, why do it with someone who has passed!

  • THIS IS SO WRONG

  • shame,,,,,i'm sorry lennon would'nt have agreed to this if he was alive,,,he cared for the struggle and helpin' the people who struggle, build teachin' those who need to learn, how to grow they're harvest get more doctors ,,,it's a shame,,,

  • I wonder who he copied it from. He does nothing original.

    Ned Jolley

  • Terrible impersonator (the voice).

  • wtf where the hell does the electricity comes from then??? solar plannels??

    wouldnt books work even better?

  • Yes, actually.  Or anything that can charge a twelve volt car battery. Including a car battery.

  • john lennons dead......

  • This expliotaion makes me sad.

  • This really makes me sick. Nobody has the right to put words into his mouth, and that includes Yoko.

  • oh lord, what an insult. thats really terrible.

  • fraud

  • well no duh! lol jk jk

  • defamation

  • eduction is great but John Lennon would have asked for laptops for cambodia children.

  • This Company is great, they are nonprofit and Lennon would have supported them and im pritty sure if he still was alive he would have done this for real. + its not disrespectful cause if it was Yoko Ono wouldnt have allowed it to be aired: they got her permission first and she is extremly protective of him. Ill leave you with a quote concerning the food/technolgy issue.

    "Give a Man a fish and you will feed him for a day. Give a man a Pole and Feed him for Life"

  • that sounds nothing like him. bad bad yoko!

  • Thats Ringo doing John Lennon!!

  • no, he wouldn't do that

  • 長いファンには噴飯ものだ。

    聖人君子のイメージ作りは止めて欲しい。

    It is the worst thing for a long fan.

    I want yoko to stop the image-building of the saint man of virtue.

  • thats just creepy!

    and what child needs a laptop? how about giving the starving children in africa some food instead?

  • maybe its an edible laptop... just dont eat it while its plugged in... lol

  • i totally agree

  • That's a really awful impersonation of John.

    Almost sounds more like Ringo.

  • that kinda sounds like john's voice, but not really. but i am sure that if he were alive today he would be in full support of the one laptop per child cause.

  • mary is nothing but a monkey bum head.

    but i love my little monkey bum head anyway

  • His voice is weird...

  • I wish to apologize for the sour tone of my last comment.

    It was rude of me, as I regard John Lennon too highly to mock his difficulties in such a way.

    Also, I just don't like the way his likeness is being used here, nor the way people have tried to tear him down in recent years. It cheapens him and his memory.

  • Just to double post... they're also not going to jump straight onto the net and start looking up celebrities or something ridiculous like that, unlike the mostly spoilt generation of Westerners who currently see the internet as a resource for porn, pirating and gossip. They actually want to learn. They realise that they need to learn for their own survival.

  • I love laughing at the many short-sighted pricks who comment on this One Laptop Per Child issue. Like a few have said already, the laptops are going to provide children with the necessary education to improve their farming techniques, their water treatment techniques, and even teach them basic language and arithmetic skills.

    One classroom can teach a handful of students for mere hours of a day. Laptops can teach every child in every country anything they ever need to know to survive.

    So stfu.

  • Just like Exerci said: Because they need education. It's pretty much a measure of "Give a man a fish, and he'll be sated for one day, teach him to fish, and he'll be sated for the rest of his life."

    Giving them food is a shortsighted solution, and so is giving them clean water. As is they have no way to live without support from Europe+USA+Aussieland. If we just keep giving them water and food, that will never change. If we give them education, give them tools to learn with, they stand a chance

  • This is awful. Plain and simple. Just awful. Misguided in the extreme. To those who knew and loved John it is a travesty and a betrayal. To those who did not, it will mean very little. Awful.

  • I think this is total rubbish and one more unfortunate denigration of a great, but flawed, man and his great ideas.

    This laptop idea might be noble, but is illogical and impractical.

    I'd much rather listen to the new 'drunk Lennon' tape just found and auctioned. At least that's known to be authentic, and sounds like more fun.

  • Laptops for quick access to Wikipedia??? or ebay??? It's more necessary that food??? This is the start of end of the world...

  • 'More than 'imagine''

    Groan...

  • This is the most revolting thing I have ever seen... I think John Lennon would be more concerned with clothing and feeding kids than computerizing them

  • exploiting John like this is horrible. Yoko should be ashamed of herself selling rights to manipulate viewers into believing John would have done something like this himself if still alive?

  • moerevlu, what makes you think yoko sold the rights? i believe she just gave approval to this very well respected cause and she indeed did it for all the right reasons - no financial gain, just helping out a great cause

  • "I got a laptop in me pocket :)"

  • ...hoe lee sheet!!!

  • creeeeeepy as hell :/

  • Sick motherfuckers. Using him for advertising.

    Yoko is nothing but a fucking whore for allowing it.

  • but its for a good cause

  • i'm pretty sure a laptop isn't top priority for most of the world's children

    food, shelter?

  • i kno i think they should be sending more important things but i was replying to "freakishplay" saying Sick motherfuckers. Using him for advertising.

    Yoko is nothing but a fucking whore for allowing it.

  • i agree. also, they would be exposed to cyberbullying, the internet's not-so-child-friendly database, and the addiction to net-surfing. They would be happier without laptops. I noticed that when Hurricane Ike hit here, all the power was off for 2 weeks, but I was happier with my family rather than on a computer all day. I'm sure in Lennon were alive today, he would have turned down the offer to be in this advertisement.

  • Relax. It's not exactly like his voice was. Sort of close, but no cigar. Listen closely to his old interviews and etc.. It's an impersonator. And, you understand, he's deceased, and digital technology isn't quite there yet to really pull it off.

  • Maybe not a laptop, maybe they should start thinking about food.

  • 0_0

    but.....how???

    Its comforting at hearing his voice, but knowing that its a digital impersonation is...somewhat disturbing

  • Hi my name is Boitumelo from Africa. One laptop per child allow me to post this message from my village! High Five!

  • fuck you

  • youtube "blue siberia" wow! cool kaleidoscope with song that fits well.

  • what a load of shit what bunch of corporate idiots thought this was a good idea. Yoko should leave lennons legacy alone if he was still here yoko would have been hisory many years ago

  • She allowed people to use his image to make sneakers.

    ...

    I'll let that sink in.

    ...

    SNEAKERS!

  • No, she didn't. That was Michael Jackson, who owns the rights to many Beatles songs.

  • haha

  • John would be appalled. And if Yoko had anything to do with this, she should be ashamed of herself. What in insult to the man, his genius and his memory.

  • Yoko HAD to have something to do with it. She basically owns John's image now. Anything with John's face, name, or music on it after his death is Yoko's doing.

  • What a fucking joke. Way to spit on the grave of one of the greatest men in the 20th century. John Lennon wouldn't be pushing for an expansion of our western industrial consumer culture.

    I fucking piss on this advert

    RIP JOHN LENNON

  • Watch, as an idiot makes John Lennon spin in his grave!

    Ta Da!!!

  • haha that's cracking!