TV and Movies

[Moonlady]

@Anonymous, above, is correct. AND anyone who thinks that doofus in the ad is listening to Ave Maria on those headphones has a strudel in his noodle lol. He's listening to what HE considers to be calming music, drowning out all of the noise around him. WE hear Ave Maria, because it's a beautiful song, based on a prayer, and has always connoted calm.

BTW, *no one's" version holds a candle to PERRY COMO'S. 🙂

[Anonymous032819]

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@jellyBEAN wrote:

This commercial makes absolutely no sense to me other than Amazon selling all these things such as drum sets and noise cancelling headphones. 

So Ave Maria is playing in the background and we are flashed a couple of kids who appear to be bashing their instruments to what I assume is rock music and then ending w/the dad wearing the noise cancelling headphones.  So I get he may not wanna hear kids bashing on instruments to rock music - thus the noise cancelling headphones, but why is Ave Maria playing in the background?  Apparently he doesn't want to hear that either, unless Ave Maria is playing thru the headphones so that he can't hear the kids bashing about.  But why would they be advertised as noise cancelling?

I think the people writing some of these commercials are smoking too much in the back room and then creating a lot of nonsense.

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What's not to understand?

It's simple.

The headphones cancels out the noise around him that he doesn't want to hear, so he can listen to the music that he does want to hear.

See?

Simple.

[Mindy D]

Maureen Batt. Her whole album, “Lady of the Lake” is out. 

[sunshine45]

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@Drlinda wrote:

Love the commercial.  Think it’s great!!!

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definitely a FUN and FUNNY commercial @Drlinda !

[YeahSo]

Agreed! As a Catholic I find the use of this song offensive. Another slap in the face to the Church.

[yaya1705]

By Kathy Schiffer 

National Catholic Register

when I first saw Amazon’s new television commercial featuring a soothing rendition of Schubert's Ave Maria. You know the ad: A couple of cute kids are staging “band practice” with drums and a spiky hairdo created with gel; both the drums and the hair gel were ordered through Amazon Prime. The commotion has awakened the mom, but the dad sits oblivious in the living room, wearing noise-canceling headphones and smiling to the strains of the Ave Maria. Like the hair gel and the drum set, dad’s headphones were ordered through Amazon Prime.

Anyway, I loved the commercial – because the still-life photos were truly memorable, but also because a Marian hymn is given such prominence on national TV. It’s not a “religious” advertisement per se; but the message of faith is front and center. Perhaps Amazon’s creative advertising department didn’t intend to proselytize, and someone simply chose a classic composition that was especially serene. God can use any situation for good; and certainly there are those among the viewing audience who may be hearing the Ave Maria for the first time. Perhaps someone out there in TV-Land wonders enough to look it up, and learns something about Catholics’ devotion to the Mother of God. Perhaps someone else hasn't thought of faith matters for years, but is drawn to the lyrics and reconsiders his Christian roots. Someone else may just enjoy the fine music. It’s all good.

Perhaps playing a Marian hymn seems less effective than preaching the gospel, admonishing the sinner, inviting people to embrace the Catholic faith. But then again, for those who will never enter a Catholic church to hear a life-changing homily, Amazon's apparently controversial commercial may be their only opportunity to reflect on the beauty and truth that is the Church.

The full article is at ncregister.com

[insomniac2]

Let us also, in the midst of this, give credit to the composer Franz Schubert.

Franz Schubert  wrote this beautiful hymn arrangement in 1825, He was only 28 years old; he passed away three years later.

[LoriLori]

I love this commercial so much and I absolutely believe he is listening to "Ave Maria" to get a moment of peace in his life.

The message is Amazon can provide for everybody's needs.

I'm not Catholic and I listen to "Ave Maria" often for the same reasons, it's soothing and calm and beautiful.  I listen to a lot of religious music though I am not religious.  

To the person who said would it be okay to use another religion's music, absolutely.  The examples of Judaism and Muslim are off base because  Catholicism, has inspired much of the world's best classic music, art and architecture unlike any other religion.

Judaism only has one iconic song, "Kol Nidre" which many non-Jews love and many non-Jewish musicians including Yo Yo Ma have played.  It is the most sacred but I've never heard a Jewish person say it's disrespectful, indeed it's a tribute to the beauty of it.

I am not a believer but I listen to Buddhist chans to meditate.  

I love the Amazon commercial and will never tire of hearing Ave Maria whether in church with believing friends or playing it or in the Amazon commercial, same as the guy with the noise-canceling headphones.

[akaburtonfan]

Love the voice but can’t listen to the commercial because it brings back memories of sitting with my dad in the last hours of his life. He loved this song and I played it for him. 

It also seems like a strange song for a commercial. 

[LoriLori]

Thank you to @cherry and @yaya1705  for posting those lovely pieces written by influential Catholics.  Won't change any minds probably but made for very interesting reading.

I am not religious but this:

If you go to Youtube you can hear the Kol Nidre, Judaism's most sacred, solemn and serious words sung on the most solemn, sacred Jewish Holy Day of the year,and it's been around for thousands of years...

...and often been sung by non-Jews including:

Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, the great black singer William Warfield, who is shown singing it in church which I don't in the least find blasphemous.

There are other versions including by Pavorotti.

In synogogue the cantor sings it a cappella but many great singers have performed it, some with accompaiment, and most great musicians played it (works best on string instruments) because it's so incredibly, awesomely beautiful, like Ave Maria.

It is such an iconic song that there are documentaries about it, it's been sung at the White House...and I'm not aware that anyone has ever taken offense. Since it's not in English we won't be hearing it in ads but if I did I would not at all take offense.