Air Force pulls ad following legal threat from White Stripes

By Sahil Kapur
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 -- 2:05 pm

WASHINGTON -- jackmeg Air Force pulls ad following legal threat from White StripesAdd the White Stripes to the long list of rockers that have purged their music from politically-charged campaigns they don't support.

The Detroit alternative rock duo consisting of Jack and Meg White has lashed out at the United States Air Force for using their song "Fell In Love With A Girl" in a recruitment ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

Posted on their main page whitestripes.com is a cutting letter explicating in no ambiguous terms the band's dissatisfaction with the Air Force's use of their works without permission. The duo said they "have not licensed" the song and "plan to take strong action" if the ad isn't pulled.

The band posted a clip of their song and a link to the Air Force ad on top of their Web site.

"The White Stripes take strong insult and objection to the Air Force Reserves presenting this advertisement with the implication that we licensed one of our songs to encourage recruitment during a war that we do not support," read the statement.

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The Air Force appears to have adhered to their demand, pulling the ad from the Web page at which it was previously located.

Shielding in advance any criticisms that they don't back the troops, the duo clarified that they "support this nation's military" but "simply don't want to become a cog in the wheel of the current conflict."

The band has over the years released several commercially successful albums as well as earned respect in the underground rock community. The song in question appeared on the band's 2002 album White Blood Cells.

The following is a screen capture of the message posted on the band's Web site.

whitestripes Air Force pulls ad following legal threat from White Stripes

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  • MUSIC
    jesus, i can't believe anyone would even want to use music from the this horrible, no talent duo, boggles the mind. i loved the double speak how they support the troops but they want them home. "supporting" troops is only mentioned during wars, you show your support by supporting their effort in the war, not by saying you don't support what they're doing. essentially it's saying "we like you, but we don't support anything you're doing." how can you support someone and be critical of their vocation? do people say to drug dealers: "i support you, but i don't support the activities you're engaged in?" no. people hate drug dealers, because they sell drugs. and, left-wing, anti-american celebrities hate the military, they just pretend to "support" them. white stripes = more like "yellow" stripes of cowards.
  • Hiawatha
    Exactly which country are we "at war" with ?
    And yes, I support my local liquor store. Many people seem to like their drugs.

    You Obama-haters should just leave the country - I'm sick of your anti-American rantings. Our Commander-in-Chief doesn't need backstabbing gay tea baggers whining every day. And take the secessionist Palin hillbillies too - plus their idiot daughter's and their baby daddys:
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35319489/ns/enterta...
  • Griffon
    It seems your life is a series of fallacies that support your jingoistic preconceptions; causing your retreat to post on a website because the people around you are tired of your ignorance.
  • Stupid ass thieves. you want to brainwash idiots, use your own music to do it.
  • Sanger
    Integrity...That long lost thing that makes us all so, so beautiful!!!!!
  • Tom of MD
    Love it , as an ex AF NCO the symbology of this incident makes me smile- 2 rockers stop the US AIr force.
    - What no drone attacks?
    - No smart bombs?
    Soon the Murdoch controlled media will start calling them terrorists!
  • PeteWa
    The Air Force just figured the laws of the land don't apply to them... lyin' for jeebus and what not.
    Scumbags.
  • nader paul kucinich gravel
    Hot Damn!
    Go Jack & Meg!

    I'm gonna fight 'em off
    A seven nation army couldn't hold me back
    They're gonna rip it off
    Taking their time right behind my back ~
  • chrisinva
    The Air Force (= taxpayers) owe the White Stripes a pantload of money,and not one officer will be fired. When you work for the US Government, you have a job for life, no work requirement, and a padded pension while taxpayers rot at the curb.
  • inky99
    The military IS socialism. It's pure socialism. I grew up in it!
  • sandi2
    The military is "fascism" not socialism. Geez, how long is it going to take to teach you people the difference between fascism and socialis?. They are complete opposites. Fascism is when the corporate controlled government runs roughshod over the people. Socialism is when the people have control over their own society.
  • Natalie
    Chrisinva: That's quite a fat paintbrush you've got there. There are as many peons and fatcats working for the Feds as there are in the private sector (roughly). My hubbie's got shitty insurance and not much else. And what's a "pension"? I gotta agree with you about those in the top rung, though. Must be sweet to be swimming in endless money and vacation days.

    I wish the White Stripes would raise a little more hell. Who the F*CK thinks they can just take your music without asking? It's basic business law. Maybe they can't afford the several years worth of attorney fees?
  • jenna.hastings
    As usual,the right wing is so devoid of ideas they can't even create their own decent music. Remember the illegal use of "Born in the USA"? And Sarah Palin illegally using "Barracuda"? The beat goes on....
  • am
    cool.
  • donofcali
    Excellent. It's funny also how the righty radio talk show freaks are constantly playing rock music during their shows that was written by Liberal (i.e., creative) musicians who consider these righty nutjobs to be exactly the total fools that they are.
  • scytherius
    Exactly.

    My favorite is when they try and co-opt John Mellencamp and his music as icons of their imaginary middle conservative America. Mellencamp is a paragon of mega- liberalism. Same with Springsteen.
  • smallbear
    Sometime in the 1970s I overheard this lame brain punk kid complain about activist song lyrics. He said "keep politics out of my music." He just wanted to party and get stoned. Nowadays, people have to speak up and say "keep my music out of your politics." The right sure seems to think everything in this world exists only to serve their purposes.
  • thx1138
    .
    SPECIAL FORCES SPOTTERS CALL IN U.S. BOMBER AIR STRIKE ON "THE WHITE STRIPES"

    -- Air Force Spokesman Claims Ground Spotters Mistook Sibling Rock Group For Afghan Wedding Party --

    -- Pentagon Launches Meaningless Investigation Into Precision Bombing Of Rock Duo's L.A. Mansion --
    .



    --
  • jpbellavance
    The USAF should have used the "AMERICA... FUCK YEAH. SUCK MY BALLS AND KISS MY ASS" From the South Park Creators.
  • scytherius
    Right, Left or otherwise . . . what IS it with the Gov't and politicians that they can't first determine if someone obtained the rights to a song? I mean, I know this is going to be one of the easiest straight lines . . . but how goddamned stupid can these people be? this happens ALL the time.
  • WSB
    Hey, these air force types murder 100s of 1000s of civilians from the air where they can't even see their faces and you expect them to worry about copyright law? Surely you jest.
  • Thomas G Williams
    YOU RETHUGLICAN what is your major malfunction? RETHUGLICANS AND ONLY RETHUGLICANS keep getting caught STEALING the works of others, like taking credit for stimulus jobs they voted AGAINST, they have no respect for copyrights or property rights or trademarks, or the honest labor of others.
  • scytherius
    Ya know, ya dipshit . . . you can't possibly be any more liberal than I. I only DREAM that Obama was a Socialist.

    Try this nimrod, there are two ways to read what i wrote (my fault in engaging in the "quick" writing that many do on BBs). The first is that I am blaming Left and Right wingers for theft. The second is, that it is not so much an issue of politics as it is one of stupidity.

    So, putting aside the painfully obvious fact that this was the Air Force, a segment of the Executive Branch of Government which, when last I checked, was run by a Dem, why don't you think before you type. Reading your post and substituting "Liberal" for :Rethuglican", I can hardly distinguish you from a teabagger.
  • Thomas G Williams
    Well since i am Not the only one to note that you failed to define your comment as you want it to be ????? well lets put it like this THE PRESIDENT HAS 2,000,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES PLUS and last time I checked this kind of BS is always the result of institutional stupidity nor has the PRESIDENT mass fired the staffers hired by the LAST ADMINISTRATION like his predessor did and it is the AIR FORCE which an INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE AIR FORCE sez was and is still infested by un-qualified politically partisan appointees and military staff and adinistrative officers who got their positions not by merit but political patronage, so what do you bet the odds are that a CONSERVALIGIOUS RETHUGLICAN HOLDOVER or BURROWER (If you know what that is) did this, because only the RETHUGLICANS think you dont have to run something by legal to see if you have everything right, besides this was not produced in house but by an outside no bid partisan supporting agency WHO WAS IN FACT HIRED BY THE LAST ADMINISTRATION.Plus I should point out to youi as you are ignorant of this fact, the militarys (3 of them) are not Part of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH they are departments of the federal government who come under the authority of the COMMANDER AND CHIEF and have there own management who are accountable to the president seperatly from his authority as CnC. NIMROD I am a veteran and a believer in the death penalty social security and the rule of law and the fact that your a no nothing jerk who did not CONSIDER THE BIGGER PICTURE someone else may have nor did you consider that it is a fact that for more than 20 years the MUSIC UNIONS have been SHOUTING at RETHUGLICANS to stop using COPYRIGHTED material with out permission, or do you forget how the RETHUGLICANS made fun of HILLERY CLINTON AND BEFORE HER JOHN KERRY FOR GETTING PERMISSION TO USE MATERIAL. so shove it up your @$$ you ignorant peusdo intellectual. and dont try to blame the PRESIDENT OR HIS ADMINISRTATION FOR THE STUPIDITY OF ANOTHER PART OF THE GOVERNMENTS STUPIDITY OR THE HOLDOVERS FROM THE LAST ADMIN AND THEIR PRIVATE CONTRACTORS.
  • lorn
    Good reply.

    One of the primary objectives of the Obama troll posse is to downplay any criticism of Obama from the left or progressive side of things. The party line is to assume all criticism of Obama comes from right wing Repukes. What an absurd idea........but one preferable to admitting to the groundswell of opposition to Obama from peace starved Americans who opposed Bush from day 1.

    When the greasy Obama trolls try to smear an obvious progressive commenter as a right wing Fox news lover or a Repug, it is a sign that you have hit a nerve. The more people point out the obvious failures of the corrupt two party system, the more these greasy insiders push back. And yes they are a lot like teabaggers.
    Staunch party loyalists from the D and R camps have much more in common with each other than with real American people.
  • Dr. Matt
    Lorn, you are a useless human. Go play in a freeway....you won't be missed.
  • lorn
    Wow, DoorMatt, how did you know I was talking about you? Guilty conscience?
  • erik77
    name one left leaning politician who had this issue? stop trying to equivocate and call a spade a spade.
  • scytherius
    Oh lets see, hmm, the Air Force which is the Executive Branch which is run by a Dem?
  • dougdiggler
    Good on you Jack n' Meg!
  • Schmice
    Shouldn't the expression be "Good for you"? What is this good on you that so many people have been using? Then there's "I was waiting on line at the [theater etc.] No. It is "I was waiting IN line.... Once proper and precise grammar is gone, so to is language. That leads to sloppy thinking and makes it that much easier for controlling us. I blame Bush, of course. P.S. I agree with your point. Are you any relation to Dirk?
  • lucky
    "good on you" is an old aussie/kiwi expression, it's maybe catching on just now in the us.
  • dougdiggler
    Yeah, I try to keep slangy, real slangy in wposts onlilne. Actually, at some level, I agree with you on the participle slippage that's been happening over the past few years. Still, good on Jack White, and no, I'm not related to Dirk Diggler, I just want to say that there's one part of us that seems separated at birth (wink!)
  • OnIsAPreposition
    preposition.
  • Obama the Warlord
    We are all beginning to wake up to the fact that America has long been the TERRORISTS IN CHIEF within our world, the PEACEFUL PLANET EARTH. For far too long, the CIA has been KILLING PEOPLE WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. In fact, CIA, WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU STILL HIDING?

    THANK YOU TO THE WHITE STRIPES FOR STANDING UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT! And to the GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, INCLUDING BARACK "THE WARLORD" OBAMA: FUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKK YOOOOUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!
  • marzi
    White Stripes and others - you should use the correct term - it's not a WAR it's an OCCUPATION, and a failed one at that.
  • Lori
    Oh please let me buy you a plane ticket to Iraq!!! Our forefathers are turning over in their graves because of p#ssies like you!If you hate it here so bad,my husband(a combat marine) would love to escort you out!!!!!!
  • Ralph
    I'm a combat Marine and I'll be more than happy to watch Warlord's back.

    And lady, don't let your mouth write a check your old man might not be able to cash!
  • GeorgeWWashington
    Our forefathers said things like "beware foreign entanglements" (George Washington). Tell your moronic blood soaked marine husband he'll never wash the blood off of his hands.
  • inky99
    You're joking, right?
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