John Lennon's Corpse Hawks Cars; Yoko and Sean Take Heat Over Citroen Ad

(MoneyWatch)  A new campaign for the Citroën DS-3, starring the late John Lennon, has Beatles fans livid and his son, Sean Lennon, distancing himself from the ad. The TV spot, by Havas (HAV) unit Euro RSCG in London, shows old footage of Lennon discussing his dislike of nostalgia:

Why all this nostalgia? Start something new. Live your life now.

Viewers are then urged to buy a car, with the slogan "Anti Retro." (There's also a version with Marilyn Monroe that no one is complaining about.)

Lennon fans immediately blasted the ad as tasteless and indefensible. The Beatles back catalog generates millions of dollars, so it is difficult to see why Sean and his mother, Yoko Ono, needed to approve the ad. Sean initially defended the move on his Twitter stream, according to the Liverpool Echo:

She did not do it for money. Has to do w hoping to keep dad in public consciousness. No new LPs, so TV ad is exposure to young.

Look, TV ad was not for money. It's just hard to find new ways to keep dad in the new world. Not many things as effective as TV.

Having just seen ad I realize why people are mad. But intention was not financial, was simply wanting to keep him out there in the world."

He also called one critic a "peasant" and an "asshole." More recently Sean has begun to deny that he had anything to do with the ads. In a series of Tweets over the last 24 hours he said:

I'm not defending the ad. I'm explaining it. I only saw the ad for the first time few days ago.

Now they say I'm abusing Lennon fans? Because I'm defending my mother from insults over an advert I had NOTHING to do with!?

What way did I exploit dad's image, do you think I made that ad? I'm a musician not an executive. Stop spreading rumors.

As for Yoko Ono, she's currently pretending that there is no controversy.

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