I’m confused about the timeline here, but something strange has happened. I first heard Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s song Can’t Hold Us (featuring Ray Dalton) in a Microsoft Outlook commercial. The commercial was published on YouTube on February 18th, though the official music video didn’t arrive until April 17th. I’m not sure what’s happening there–did Microsoft get the privilege of taking the song public?* I’m ignorant about these things so fill me in if you know.
What’s more interesting to me is what happened on June 21st. The trailer for the movie “Jobs,” inspired by Steve Jobs of Apple, came out, and it features the same song used in the Microsoft commercials (hear it about 30 seconds into the trailer). Given the historic rivalry between these companies, I would think that the person choosing music for the trailer would stay far, far away from anything already associated with Microsoft.
Obviously I am wrong. The question is why did they go for it? Did they fail to notice that Microsoft was already featuring Macklemore’s latest? Did they notice but not care, since it’s such a catchy tune? Did they use the logic “anything you can do I can do better?”
Who knows? Personally, I think Microsoft beat the Apple-lovers to the punch in this scenario. What do you think?
*editing to add: “The Heist,” the album to which the single “Can’t Hold Us” belongs, came out in October 2012. I guess the music video just lagged.
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