Sometimescommercialsstick in your head not because of their product or message, but because of the song that accompanies them.
One example is the recent 15-second TV spot titled “One Body,” which advertisesmultivitaminsmade by One A Day.
Featuring a series of quick shots of diverse people demonstrating the benefits of being healthy andhappy, the commercial features an edit of two songs by Nina Simone, according toLooper.
The edited 1968 song “I Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” was a mashup of “Ain’t Got No” and “I Got Life,” both of which were written and performed for the playHair.
The lyrics “Got myhair, got my head, got my brains, got myears, got myheart, got my soul, got mymouth, got mysmile” are featured in the One A Day commercial, but in the song from which they are taken, Simone is singing about those things that can never be taken away from her.
Nina Simone’s music delivers a powerful statement
Nina Simone might have died almost 20 years ago, but her legacy and message lives on through modern media.
Besides commercials such as “One Body” by One A Day, she was also the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary by Liz Garbus in 2015 titledWhat Happened, Miss Simone?(perIMDb).
The documentary showcased Simone’s music alongside her political activism, including her famous song “Mississippi Goddamn,” which was written as a response to a 1963 bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young black girls, according toAirTalk.
That same year, actressZoe Saldana played the songstressin a biopic, for which the actress received harsh reviews for darkening her skin and wearing a nose prosthetic, reportsCNN.
Saldana apologized in 2020, saying, “I thought back then that I had the permission because I was a Black woman.
And I am.
But it was Nina Simone, and Nina had a life and she had a journey that should be honored to the most specific detail, because she was a specifically detailed individual” (viaIndieWire).
