We don’t really expect much out of the Hard Rock Cafe chain. Bad, overpriced food? Check. Second-tier music memorabilia? Yup. And who could forget the hippie-turned-yuppie-friendly playlist straight out of the Rolling Stone canon? But, in a story that’s been making the music-critic Twitter rounds today, Hard Rock has managed to impress us with the schlocky depths of their rock nostalgia.
As OC Weekly reports, Hard Rock’s Argentina branch has launched a theoretically cool ad campaign, in which the artists Damian Garofalo and Hugo Orita draw the comic-style stories behind classic songs like The Beatles’ “Let It Be” and Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” It seems super-weird, however, that the company signed off on the ad below, which tells the tragic story of Eric Clapton’s alcoholism and his young son’s tragic death. Not only is it generally in poor taste to capitalize on the tale of a little kid who died by falling out a window, but we have a hard time believing it will put anyone in the mood to eat an overcooked burger while Pink Floyd blares in the background, either. See the poster here.
Meanwhile, Chris Weingarten points out that “C[hris] Ware should be more pissed than Clapton” about Garofalo and Ortega ripping off his style. He’s not wrong, but we see some Adrian Tomine elements in there, too.