Believe it or not, the art of choosing an ad campaign song is not that easy or straightforward. Numerous world leaders and even a few dictators have found themselves mocked and even summoned for selecting the wrong tune.
‘I Will Always Love You’ As A Campaign Song
One of the most notable examples of a world leader having a strange choice for a campaign track is Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi dictator had Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ as the song (Arabic version) for the 2002 campaign. Well, it wasn’t much of an election since there was no other candidate. It was actually more of a referendum than an election with the voters deciding whether to allow or not to Saddam Hussein another seven years as the president of Iraq.
Facts About The Song
The famous song was originally written and recorded in 1973 by singer and songwriter, Dolly Parton. Her country version of the song was released in 1974 as a solo track. It was written as a farewell to her one-time partner and mentor (of seven years), Porter Wagoner after she decided to pursue a solo career. Whitney Houston recorded her version of the song for the 1992 film, The Bodyguard. The single spent around 14 weeks at number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 making it one of the best-selling solo tracks of all time!
Initially, there were a lot of rumours suggesting that Dolly Parton had refused to perform the song while Whitney Houston’s version was on the chart. This was so that it doesn’t compete with Houston’s recording. However, both ladies cleared the air, dispelling all rumours by speaking appreciatively of one another in interviews. In fact, when Whitney Houston won the Record of the Year award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, it was Dolly Parton (along with David Foster) who presented her with the award.
But why use it as a campaign track? Generally, the purpose of a campaign song is to increase popularity. Evidently, this particular song, due to its fame, was supposed to have the same effect. Seeing as people voted overwhelmingly in favour of Saddam Hussein serving for another seven years (11.4 million people voted in his favour. This means that there were no votes against him. None), do you think the tactic proved to be successful?
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