Hello, how's it going?
Welcome back to TwoSet...
VIOLIN— I mean... what?
I was gonna say TwoSet Controversy.
- But... TwoSet Violin is our channel name. - Oh, okay...
That's right!
Today, we're gonna be talking about
a little bit of controversy.
Recently there was a... commercial,
by, um... Infiniti?
- It's the... car brand. - The car brand Infiniti.
They made a car commercial.
I think Infiniti is... owned by Nissan?
Yeah, I think so.
And this ad caused a bit of outrage
amongst the musician community.
Let's watch first.
*Orchestra playing Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" out of tune*
*Orchestra crescendoing into cacophony*
- (Introducing the all-new Infiniti QX60.) - What the hell...
I'm so confused!
(Take on life, in style.)
Oh, I'm so confused!
Well, clearly, the marketing person at Infiniti
didn't take music lessons 'cause
this ad was a little bit...
TONE-DEAF.
Okay, okay, so... a bit of context:
In this ad, they hired some youth orchestra
or some young musicians
- representing a youth orchestra, right? - Mhm.
Clearly the ad is like,
"We're gonna get these young musicians to sound really bad,"
and then this car has such good sound-blocking,
sound-proof ability that this... lady—
it's a mum, or whatever—
can block out the sound of her own kid playing,
which, all right, already that's kinda messed up. BUT,
the real messed-up bit is,
that's not even the youth orchestra playing.
They deliberately found a recording
that was done by adult musicians.
It was a parody troll recording,
that was deliberately meant to sound bad, okay?
That is... whoaaa.
So they deliberately got a recording that sounded bad
and then asked these young, innocent musicians
to mime and be associated with...
- this bad sound. - ...bad playing,
as if to say that young musicians sound bad.
Dude, clearly in the rear mirror, it looked like
- she was the mum looking at the daughter, - Yeah, right?
And she's like...
"I'm not having any of this."
*Zzzzzhhh-t!*
- It's like, "Okay!" - Mm!
And my question is, do the kids
know about what was happening?
We don't know, right?
Yeah, I'm so curious if the kids that did this ad
knew that they would be put on screen
associated to being mocked.
That's what I wanna know!
'Cause, essentially, they're kinda mocking the kids, right?
It's like, "Oh, you sound so bad,
- I'll put up a window." - "Oh, yeah, look how soundproof this is."
Maybe the kids knew.
-Yeah. - But can you just imagine
how excited these little kids are, like,
"Oh! We're gonna be on TV!"
"We're gonna be on an ad!"
"They get to hear my playing!"
And they practice really hard for it.
And then... like...
The whole family's, like, gathered around their TVs, like,
- "Oh, we're gonna see the ad!" - (Brett) "Here we go!" and then,
- Then they play it... - ♪ Daaah, daAaaAh ♪
* BlEeeEeh... *
I dunno.
Some responses include,
there's a lot of confused viewers, you know...
I mean, yeah, I was very confused!
I think that's, like, the worst thing for me.
I was like, "I don't know what's going on."
A lot of people found it "unnecessarily mean."
Definitely thought it was...
I mean, it's not the meanest thing,
but considering that these are, like,
just innocent kids who are musicians...
it could affect their self-esteem.
I did feel that. I felt so bad for them.
- I was like, "Bro..." - Yeah, it's...
Another one commented:
I can imagine,
there'll probably be a subset of viewers that'll be like,
"It's just a joke."
- "Don't be so sensitive." - Oh, I can—I can see them saying that, yeah.
But I think the problem is—
for me, and I don't know what you guys think, is—
well, first of all, I don't think the joke was that funny.
- Yeah, I'd say— - "Oh~
The car's so good at soundproofing it can block out young kids—"
It's like...
- This context, I didn't find it was funny. - (Eddy) Yeah.
In this context, it just looked mean,
and it looked tone-deaf.
And then you're trying to sell a car
- on top of that, bro, like... - Yeah, yeah. And then,
like, the whole setup, like, it was so elaborate.
- How much money went into that ad? - Yeah.
There are also going to be... just kids,
that are learning an instrument,
that are struggling with self-esteem issues.
- I think that's very common, right? Like... - Oh, yeah.
Look at how many... not even kids.
Dude, like, uni music students that feel
- self-conscious about performing in front of people. - (Brett) Ohh...
Just imagine being a kid that's learning an instrument,
and you see this, and you're like,
- "Oh... I guess my mum... - "I don't..."
...wants to block out my sound when I practice."
And then what if you're a kid that doesn't play an instrument?
It's like, "Ha! I don't wanna be like that.
I don't want my parents not listening to me,
so I'm not gonna learn an instrument."
- Yeah! Or they're just gonna feel really self-conscious. - They're just try...
Little bit sacrilegious.
Mm! Quite sacrilegious of an ad, if you ask me!
So, there's a youth orchestra out there
called the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra,
and they very cleverly responded
and roasted back the ad by making their own version!
Let's watch it.
I love how they have a BMW...!
Saying, "We're not Infiniti, we're BMW."
- German! Classical music tradition! - Yeah!
Bach is like, "Ach! Jaaaa! Let's gooo!"
Have you seen the new Nissan Infiniti ad?
Can you imagine?
A big company like that couldn't find a youth orchestra
to play the music.
*"Also sprach Zarathustra" booms through the door*
They should have called us,
the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra.
(The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra
has an "infinity" of young talent.)
(More than 1,000 children and youth,
15 orchestras!)
- (Any one of them could've done the job!) - Dude...!
(In our experience, all kids have talent,
and can shine on any stage, anywhere.)
See? You're right. Exactly.
- Youth orchestras play like that! - Mm!
Yeah, that's right!
Oh, man, that's so funny.
An "infinity" of young talent!
These guys just completely flexed on them.
Yeah.
It also shows that
whoever was on that marketing team
is out of touch with how young musicians actually sound,
- how youth orchestras actually sound. - I mean, yeah.
I mean, yeah okay, maybe the younger...
like, the eight-year-old ones
that are, like, on their first rehearsals.
But even then, usually it doesn't sound that bad,
and they'd be playing repertoires fitting their...
- Yes. No, I've... - ...skill level. So it'd sound okay anyway.
- I've, like, conducted young orchestras like that. - Yeah.
After they practice in just a few rehearsals, they sound good.
- Yeah! - They won't play something that hard,
but it'll sound, like, together, like...
- It's all together. - Yeah.
It's not like, *horrible noise*
So what do you guys think about this sacrilegious car commercial?
Do you think it was offensive to the musical community?
Or do you think it was just an ad,
and that maybe people need to just not get offended?
Because I did read one or two comments like that.
Personally, like, I know a lot of music friends
that have seen this, and
they felt pretty s****y,
like, they didn't feel very good watching it.
I— it just leaves kind of a bad taste in your mouth
type of thing, right?
It's like, "Let's be mean to kids...
in order to sell our car."
- That was the logic. - It's just more like,
it's funny thinking about the person going:
"I'm gonna be mean to all the kids
to sell the Infiniti car!"
I'm pretty sure Nissan is like a "family" kind of brand, right?
- And the fact that there's a mum... - Yeah!
If they're trying to be relatable to parents as well,
- it's like, I don't think parents... - Can you imagine?
want their kids to be—
have their self-esteem ruined like that as well,
- you know what I mean? - Imagine, like, I'm an eight-year-old,
I see that's my mum.
She's like, "Ahh!"
- I'm all like, "Ohh..." - (Eddy) Yeah.
"She doesn't like my playing."
"I'm gonna quit!"
- I probably would quit, I'll be like, "Nah, I'm out." - Yeah.
This ad indirectly insults all the patient
parents out there that support their kids.
- Yeah! - Because I was thinking about our parents, right?
- Yeah, they f— - They went to EVERY Eisteddfod.
- Oh my god! - They went to—drove us to EVERY lesson,
- They dropped us—ohh! - they took us to every rehearsal.
Every b—they endured that in order for us to be here.
Yeah, so much self-sacrifice, so much support.
I know parents that sit into every single lesson,
taking notes for their kids.
Yeah. My mum drove, like, two hours every week
- for me to get lessons. - Yeah.
And then here they show a mum that's just, like...
...muting their kid. Ugh.
- Anyway, I think we've gone... - Nissan, if you wanna hire, like, new marketing directors
to help you run an orchestra ad,
we are here, we're totally here.
Just hit us up, and um...
Nah, I'd rather BMW.
Yeah, yeah, actually no—
- BMW! - Nah, BMW!
Ben—Mercedes Benz, BMW,
- the German brands... - German tradition.
- German Volkswagen, all of you guys, yes. - Bach, Beethoven...
We can make car sounds on violin
if you want, you know.
Remember, you have to always go practice.
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Bye bye!