The Mystery of the Cool Kids Rhapsody Commercial

By now I’m sure most of you readers are familiar with the Cool Kids and Sara Bareilles Rhapsody commercial (It was posted here for chrissakes). It runs about a thousand times a day on every network – you really couldn’t have missed it even if all you watch is the History Channel. Seriously.

Well, for the past few weeks they’ve been running an altered version of the spot. You’ll notice that the Cool Kids have been inexplicably removed from the :30 advertisement and had their portion replaced with another Sara Bareilles tune. Hmmmmm…

What’s going on here? Why were Chuck and Mikey swept under the rug? Did anyone else notice? Is there something I’m missing here?

Could this be a case of Rhapsody trying to distance their brand from the perils of Hip-Hop music? Is this further proof that corporations no longer want rappers as the face of their products? Or is this, God forbid, another case of closet corporate*duh duh duh* racism (GASP!)? Bol?

Maybe it has to do with the fact that Sara Bareilles has been in the top 5 most downloaded songs on iTunes for the past month? After being featured on the Rhapsody commercial, “Love Song” exploded on the pop charts, jumping from #73 to #16 in one week – and is currently in the Billboard top 10. I mean, that track is a catchy one.

What gives here?