Have you listened to (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay recently? It features a dock but zero donks. There isn’t even a bit that sounds like a record being played underwater, despite its ocean-adjacent setting. What Otis Redding’s warm and wistful classic needs is hauling into the age of brain-pulping EDM, and who better to do the updating than Will.i.am, the Black Eyed Peas’ sonic vajazzler-in-chief?
That’s the premise of Nescafé’s latest attempt to recruit more pod people into their capsule-coffee cult. It certainly doesn’t lack energy: a montage of visual fireworks strains to suggest that Will.i.am whacking pitch-bending synth onto a masterful Otis vocal is a paradigm-smashing way of revitalising a soul standard, much like Nescafé is reimagining boring old coffee.
But Dolce Gusto isn’t an expression of unfettered creativity. It’s about getting a fancy but mostly fuss-free coffee with one click. And isn’t that how we all picture Will.i.am in the studio? Fiddling with his iWatch, peering over the top of some elaborate eyewear and pressing a big red button marked “banger”? That’s why it fails: it’s an ad at war with itself, pulling against a tide rolling away.
