Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has rejected the request of Facebook-owned Instagram to allow them to use Another Brick in the Wall in a commercial in exchange for a ton of money. It is so refreshing to see someone turn down a huge profit on a matter of principle. Few things are worth what you pay for them but Krispy Kreme Donuts and admission to the Pink Floyd Laser Show are two of them.
Waters’ answer was:
“And the answer is, ‘F*** you. No f***ing way. I only mention that, because this is the insidious movement of them to take over absolutely everything.”
Waters also said:
“Those of us who do have any power, and I do have a little bit, in terms of the control of the publishing of my songs I do anyway. I will not be a party to this bull****, Zuckerberg.”
“We want to thank you for considering this project. We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and necessary today, which speaks to how timeless a work …,”
“It’s true. And yet … they want to use it to make Facebook and Instagram even bigger and more powerful than it already is so that it can continue to censor all of us in this room, and prevent this story about Julian Assange getting out to the general public, so the general public could go, ‘What? What?’”
“¡Vete a la chingada!”: @rogerwaters a Mark Zuckerberg. El músico contó que le ofrecieron “una gran cantidad de dinero” por permitir el uso de Another brick in the wall II para promover Instagram. Lo narró en un acto por la libertad de Julian Assange (@Wikileaks)#VideosLaJornada pic.twitter.com/gEVqaor8Eo
— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) June 12, 2021
“How did this little pr*** who started off by saying, ‘She’s pretty, we’ll give her a 4 out of 5, she’s ugly, we’ll give her a 1,’ how the … did he get any power?” Waters said later, in an apparent jab at Facebook’s earliest iteration, FaceMash. “And yet here he is, one of the most powerful idiots in the world.”
CNET reported that a spokesperson for Facebook said: “that the song request came from the Instagram marketing team, not Zuckerberg himself, and that the company respects the decisions of musical artists about whether or not to work with the social network and its properties.”
Waters was speaking at a “recent New York City event at the People’s Forum to advocate for the release of Julian Assange,” who remains in custody in the United Kingdom while being wanted in the United States and is facing an 18-count indictment regarding charges of espionage.
