We were in a movie theater the other day and one of those “commercials before the trailers” came on – this one was a commercial for the aforementioned Coke C2 and the song playing in the commercial was “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones. The connotation is simple – people who can’t “get what they want” (Coke) “get what they need” (C2). OK, kinda cute.

But then it hit me – the Rolling Stones are the freaking Rolls Royce of song licensing. There were gigantic headlines over how many millions of dollars Microsoft had to pay in order to use “Start Me Up” for their Windows 95 campaign. Disney tapped them for a “Rock and Rollercoaster” but had to settle on Aerosmith (truly the “poor man’s Stones”) for a tenth the price. The Stones have made $1.5 Billion since 1989 and it’s not due to screwing around.

So I guess this launch is pretty serious.