Jack White take, take, takes money from Coke

According to NME, Jack White has made a commerical for Coke. As The Guardian's John Harris says, when it comes to musicians selling their music to multi-nationals, "if one figure could have been relied upon to stay well away, it was surely the White Stripes' Jack White." While White has never said anything overtly political in the past, The White Stripes turned down a chance to be in a Gap ad, and White prides himself on having old-fashioned values.

This has nothing to do with "selling out", there are broader ethics to worry about. Coke may have asked him to write about "love in a worldwide form", but White should be aware of how little Coca-Cola actually has anything to do with love and global unity.

Apart from health issues (Coke is, after all, nothing more than cheap, tooth-rotting sugar and syrup), websites likes Killer Coke and Coke Watch give proof that there is something very wrong with the corporation. Coke is known for human right violations throughout South America, particularly their treatment of unionized workers in Columbia, where they have been accused in a lawsuit of working with paramilitary groups to murder and kidnap union leaders.

It's one thing for pop stars to do Coke commercials, since they're all about flashy images. For a rock star like White, who stuck with an indie label for years before hitting it big and who generally seems intelligent, however, this seems like a peculiar and misinformed decision.

Pete Doherty, Kate Bush and Moz after the jump...