Last week, when Katy Perry answered a question proposed by her California Dreams tourmate Marina and the Diamonds about product placement in music videos, she never expected to touch off a media firestorm. And she's plenty mad that she did.
It all started with Perry's reply to Marina's query — she asked her followers for "a consensus on product placement in videos" — in which she wrote, "Do it with style and grace ... Not so 'In [your] face like some. [You] have to get creative with it. Some artists don't care though, and you can tell."
Given that Perry's response occurred hours after the premiere of Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" video (a version of which is loaded with promotional shots for products like Spears' own Radiance perfume, Make Up for Ever cosmetics and dating website PlentyofFish.com), most were quick to interpret it as a dig at Spears for selling out. And that made Perry very angry.
Early Wednesday morning (February 23), Perry took to Twitter once again to rip the tabloid media (or as she calls them, "filth") for their speculative and hurtful ways, claiming in a series of messages that they manipulated her words in an attempt to pit her against Spears, and, because of that, were basically responsible for the decline of civilization as we know it.
"Dear tabloid media a.k.a. FILTH: please note I expressed an overall feeling about product placement, [its] role in videos and the art of them being compliment[ary] or sticking out," Perry wrote. "Most, if not ALL, popsters welcome deals with products [to] offset costs of big-budget vids in these recessional music industry times. I'VE used them in MY vids before and am happy [to be] able [to] make a better vid because of [them].
"Once AGAIN, stop pitting artist against artist for [your] sensational satisfaction," she continued, "and stick to what [you're] best [at]: lying, gossiping, exaggerating and overall lending a hand [to] the deterioration of a generation."
What do you think of artists using product placement in their videos? Tell us in the comments.