What do The Hoff, Vanilla Ice, Peter Russell Clarke and John Farnham have in common?
They’re still alive – and yet they’ve come back from the dead. Nope, they’re not zombies, they’re kitsch marketing revivals. Even if you weren’t a fan in 1987, you’ve probably heard that Rick Astley song, never Gonna Give You Up, because of the 2007 “Rickrolling” phenonemon. Rickrolling is a YouTube invention, where videos are surreptitiously interrupted and replaced by Rick Astley’s film clip from the ’80s. What startedas a prank on the internet imageboard 4chan soon hit the mainstream media, interrupting basketball and baseball games, radio programs and TV shows. But it’s not just another internet craze. It’s an example of marketing revival, or reinventing daggy B-list stars for the A-list spotlight. Astley himself has said he finds Rickrolling “hilarious, bizarre and funny,” and his main concern is his “daughter doesn’t get embarrassed about it”. He could probably make it up to her if she did; in November, Astley was nominated for “Best Act Ever” at the MTV Europe Music Awards and m
