A new Super Bowl ad from Workday – the enterprise cloud for finance, HR and planning – is taking aim at those in corporate America who throw around the term “rock star” a little too loosely. And they’re getting a clutch assist from a coterie of real-life rock stars who are sick of the term “rock star” becoming as overused (and incorrectly used) as the word “literally.”
“Hey corporate types, will you stop calling each other rock stars?” pleads KISS legend Paul Stanley at the commercial’s start. “Do you know what it takes to be a rock star?” Joan Jett demands. “I was on the road since I was 16,” she adds, tipping to her time in The Runaways.
“I’ve trashed hotel rooms in 43 countries!” brags Billy Idol. “I’ve done my fair share of bad things,” Ozzy Osbourne muses in the commercial. “Also, your fair share of bad things.”
While effortlessly ripping out an electric guitar solo, Gary Clark Jr. taunts, “Hey Liz in HR! Can you do this?”
The ad ends with the Ozzman himself getting a closer look at corporate life (“Hi, I’m Ozwald”) and Stanley busting into a corporate meeting room to stop someone from dropping the unearned moniker yet again.
Watch here.
Real-life rock stars were far from the only musicians appearing in the Super Bowl 2023 broadcast. There was also Diddy’s Uber One ad (which co-stars Kelis, Montell Jordan, Donna Lewis and Haddaway); Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s Dunkin’ Donuts ad; Jack Harlow with Missy Elliott and Elton John in a Doritos ad; John Travolta in a T-Mobile ad; Sarah McLachlan in a Busch Light ad; and Metro Boomin in a Budweiser ad.
