Corporate Whoring: One Band Fights Back When McDonald's Asks Them to Play SXSW For Free

SXSW is a weeklong clusterfuck of noise, battling brands and alcohol-soaked parties that many bands see as a rite of passage. It’s a marathon of endurance, and often a thankless one – many, if not most bands will play upwards of a dozen shows throughout the week in dingy bars, on rooftops, alleyways, parking lots and wherever the hell they can get someone to pay attention. More often than not, they’re playing for free.

Generally speaking, most of the parties thrown during SXSW week are done so on a shoestring budget, and bands taking part enter the experience knowing they’re going to be working their asses off for, at best, free tacos and a beer. But if you can manage to get on the bill for a larger sponsored party or corporate event, such as McDonand’s big blowout shindig, there’s good money to be made.

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Corporate branding is omnipresent at SXSW, and this was never clearer than the moment we found ourselves looking up at a giant fucking Doritos vending machine downtown, the size of a skyscraper. This year, McDonald’s, one of SXSW’s “Super Sponsors,” is throwing a party and they asked Brooklyn band Ex Cops to play. The catch? They were asked to play for free (with the vague promise of free food), by a company worth nearly $100 billion. Co-frontman Brian Harding posted an open letter to the fast food giant on the band’s Facebook. Here are highlight excerpts:

Ex Cops

This week our band was asked to play the McDonald’s Showcase at the annual South by Southwest, also known to music insiders as “SXSW.” Their selling point was that this was “a great opportunity for additional exposure,” and that “McDonald’s will have their global digital team on site to meet with the bands, help with cross promotion, etc”

I don’t, and doubt that they know what this means either. Getting past that rhetoric, at the very least a big corporation like McDonald’s can at least pay their talent a little. Right?

“There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately)”

As of 2013, McDonalds is valued at 90.3 billion dollars.

In lieu of being paid like a real artist, or anyone who is employed to do a service, McDonald’s assures us that we will “be featured on screens throughout the event, as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)”

It is a horrifying and gross reality when one sees the true nature of corporations and their pathetic attempts to achieve relevance with millennials. Doritos received a lot of flack for their stage a couple years ago, but i’m going to assume they paid Lady Gaga.

Here is McDonald’s full response to Ex Cops’ statement:

“We follow the same standard protocol as other brands and sponsors by inviting talented and emerging musicians to join us at the SXSW Festival. We look forward to serving McDonald’s food, drinks and fun in Austin. #slownewsday”

When a band with little recognition or backing are on the hook for travel, crew salaries, lights, studio time, manufacturing costs (merch, CDs and so on), utility bills and most of all time, it’s hardly the result of a slow news day to draw attention to vampiric practices by a company whose wealth is directly derived from making people unhealthy worldwide. When a band is faced with a vale reduction to absolute zero by a company whose CEO makes $9,247 an HOUR – which takes an average McDonald’s employee four months to earn – the damning eye of truth doesn’t negotiate color and context.

Corporate Whoring: One Band Fights Back When McDonald’s Asks Them to Play SXSW For Free

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