David Bowie's 'Fame' provides the irony-free atmosphere for a TV commercial promoting a new line of Cadillac's Escalade.

It seems like the ad is illustrating how those with refined tastes have always surrounded themselves with luxury, from ancient eras through today. As such, we see empires rise and fall -- ancient Egypt, Victorian England, so on -- but one thing remains the same: a desire to smile contentedly because you've got something no one else can have.

But a closer listen to the song's lyrics reveals the acid-dripping derision with which Bowie gazed upon those who followed such attention-grabbing pursuits. Then again, Cadillac is probably hoping we're grooving to guitarist Carlos Alomar's timeless riff -- it helped propel 'Fame' to the top of the Billboard chart in 1975, a first for Bowie -- rather than listening too closely to the song's words.

The Cadillac commercial, which aired back in the spring before returning to the airwaves recently, ends just as John Lennon (who co-wrote the song) offers one more memorably cynical exclamation of the song title. Somewhere, he's likely getting a good chuckle out of all this.

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