That new hit single might hide a jingle

Although the album was produced by the San Francisco label Six Degrees Records, the cover art and liner notes were created by executives of Arnold Worldwide. The album cover shows a picture of a Volkswagen taken from one of the agency's commercials; the liner notes purport to convey a "typical conversation" between Neill and an account executive at Arnold Worldwide, clearly a relationship of kindred spirits.

"I don't think Ben is compromising himself one iota," says Tim Brunelle, creative director at Arnold Worldwide. "We would tell him, 'could you make the drums sound happy?' or 'it sounds sludgy,' and fortunately Ben would say, 'Aha! How about this?' " says Mr. Brunelle.

Neill's responsiveness was a breath of fresh air, Mr. Brunelle adds. "When artists fight with agencies because they think they're compromising their art, that lasts about two seconds. We're paying way too much for that kind of prima donna [behavior]."

Volkswagen also co-sponsored Neill's recent 20-city concert tour, during which the musician showed videos from Volkswagen's "drivers wanted" ad campaign on an overhead screen at his performances. Neill says his purpose is to showcase the ads, alongside his music, as legitimate "works of art."

And Neill and Volkswagen will likely spawn imitators.

BMW, for example, hired film directors including John Woo to make a series of action shorts featuring BMW cars. The films can be viewed on the website bmwfilms.com. Similar types of "advertainment" will reach TV viewers when a new short-film cable channel called BOB (Brief Original Broadcasts) launches in March.

Who, or what, is the tool here, some critics ask, artist or corporation? Ben Neill or Volkswagen? Or, ultimately, is it consumers living in a society in which even art serves the sole purpose of selling consumer goods?

Author Douglas Rushkoff, who has written extensively about coercion in modern marketing, says he respects Neill's candor. "I'd much rather see a CD that is blatantly and honestly the result of advertising than, say, a rap hero like Jay-Z going on a tour for Sprite that is made to look like a tour for black urban youth," Mr. Rushkoff says. (His example is not a far-out hypothetical. The "Sprite Liquid Mix" tour ran from August to September of this year.)

Nor does Neill's musical genre, electronica - which rarely contains lyrics with any social or political meaning - make any pretenses about being something it is not.

The worst, says Rushkoff, was hearing Iggy Pop's punk anthem "Lust for Life" in a Royal Caribbean International cruise commercial. "It castrates the music because punk was the music of rebellion," he says.

Volkswagen is considering selling Neill's album in its dealerships, which suits the artist just fine. "Bach was working for the church," says Neill. "He had to use the text he was given," too.

Rushkoff puts it another way. "We're all in bed to some extent with big business. The question is whether you're playing them or they're playing you."

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