Pitchfork

UPDATE: According to various reports, Wilco's "War on War" appeared in a 2004 advertisement for the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, so this new deal may not actually be the band's first licensing deal. That is, unless the State of Illinois used the Wilco song without permission, in which case, shame on you, Illinois!   

For their very first commercial licensing deal, Wilco have given Volkswagen half of the songs on Sky Blue Sky to use in an ad campaign that features the tag line "When you get into a Volkswagen, it gets into you."

That's kind of nasty if you think about it.

According to AdAge.com, ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (which is responsible for designing quite a few other VW ad campaigns) created the TV spots, of which there will be six in total. Each one features a different song from the album, and the first-- featuring "The Thanks I Get" and viewable below-- is already airing. The campaign will run throughout the summer, and the car company will stream all of the songs used on its website.

A second commercial features "You Are My Face" and is also embedded for your pleasure below.

Wilco kick off their U.S. tour with Low on June 13 in Davenport, Iowa.

Commercial 1 ("The Thanks I Get"):



Commercial 2 ("You Are My Face"):



Dates:

06-13 Davenport, IA - Adler Theater #
06-14 Cincinnati, OH - Aronoff Center #
06-15 Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theater #
06-17 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo
06-19 Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park Amphitheatre #
06-20 Charlotte, NC - Ovens Auditorium #
06-21 Washington, DC - Merriweather Post Pavilion #
06-22 Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theater #
06-24 Northampton, MA - The Pines #
06-25 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom #
06-26 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw #
06-28 Boston, MA - Bank of America Pavilion #
06-29 Shelburne, VT - The Green at Shelburne Museum #
06-30 Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall #
07-07 Kongsberg, Norway - Kongsberg Jazz Festival
07-08 Copenhagen, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-11 Montreux, Switzerland - Montreux Jazz Festival
07-13 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
07-14 Glasgow, Scotland - Indian Summer Festival
07-15 Dour, Belgium - Dour Festival
07-17 Turin, Italy - Spazio 211 Festival
07-20 Benicassim, Spain - Festival Internacional de Benicassim
09-14-16 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival

* with Low