THE CANDY MAN

It seems that using old songs to advertise new products is something recurrent. TV spots have been doing this for a long time. I was watching TV with my eldest son  and he told me "That songs is Willy Wonka's song, dad!" I was not paying attention to it but it was a spot about the newest i-phone (Purrrrple!! what a coincidence!! That's the colour of Willy Wonka's jacket.

We searched the Internet for the song and there it was, "The Candy Man",  a song that originally appeared in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory  written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the film.

The soundtrack version of the song was sung by Aubrey Woods, who played Bill, the candy store owner in the film.

I decided to create an activity for my students and this is the result. Hope your students enjoy it as much as mine.

First, play the video from the film. 

Then, tell students to close their eyes to listen to it again but then play the advert. When it's in the middle, tell them to open their eyes and they will realize that its an iphone ad.

Once it is finished you can ask them:

ORAL WORK

• What similarities are there between the spot and the film?
• Do you find any similarities between the phone and a candy?
• Why is it purple?
• Why is the phone advertised like that?
  
• Do you think it is a coincidence?

Finally, play the original song again and do the activity