Intel and Lady Gaga are facing accusations of exploiting their tribute to Grammy winner David Bowie for their own monetary gain. The pop star faces accusations of treating the memorial as an advertisement for Intel.
Gaga said to use memorial as Intel ad
In the performance, the singer went through ten of the rock icon’s tracks and used Intel-designed visual effects. On completion of the act, the CBS broadcast telecast an Intel commercial starring the pop star, and this left viewers furious, with many expressing their disgust on social media.
Bowie’s son Duncan Jones, who also was very disappointed, tweeted the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition for the world “gaga,” and wrote: “Over-excited or irrational, typically as a result of infatuation or excessive enthusiasm; mentally confused.”
The reaction from Bowie’s son was quite tempered, but that of his fans on the Internet was very harsh. One person tweeted that it was awful and that the fact that she used it to sell Intel products was disgraceful. Another user said that it was a “disgusting” act.
Integrating technology with art
The team behind the act started working on ideas long before the performance, but when Bowie died on Jan. 10, Lady Gaga started re-imaging it as a tribute. She talked to Intel about her idea, saying she would like to do things that integrate technology and art with powerful experiences. She said that the collaboration with Intel was a new experience for her and that the chip maker gave her a lot of amazing technology to play with.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Intel’s director of technology, Paul Tapp, said: “Lady Gaga had been speaking to Intel as early as September, brainstorming ways in which she could use technology to express herself in a way that had never been done before.”
Lady Gaga, aged 29, is a six-time Grammy winner. Just like Bowie, she is known for self-reinvention. Bowie’s career was spread over half a century, and Gaga charted it with a medley touching on the hits “Space Oddity,” “Suffragette City,” “Rebel Rebel,” “Fashion,” “Fame,” “Changes,” “Ziggy Stardust,” “Under Pressure,” “Let’s Dance,” and “Heroes.” Although the pop star has never met Bowie, she says they “were pen pals.” Prior to the performance, she got a tattoo of his face on the side of her body.
