British singer La Roux has issued a pretty frank assessment of Fox Business Network after the American cable station used her certified 2009 bop Bulletproof to score a segment on bulletproof backpacks and clothing for primary school students.
[jwplayer BJc4no54]
America, hey?
The segment in question was recently aired on breakfast show Mornings With Maria. The offending clip sees the camera pan over a selection of the backpacks and jackets while the song’s jaunty chorus plays through.
Fox Business back-to-school segment glamorizes bulletproof backpacks and clothing for kids https://t.co/6Ks670aEAn pic.twitter.com/HikywO9a7l
— Media Matters (@mmfa) August 20, 2018
While the fact a cottage industry of bulletproof gear for tykes has emerged in response to America’s ongoing gun violence crisis is shocking enough, La Roux said the show’s use of the innocuous Bulletproof was really messed up.
In a statement provided to Pitchfork, La Roux, aka Elly Jackson, said “Using ‘Bulletproof,’ a song I wrote about relationships, for a piece like this is abhorrent.
“I have never, and would never approve my music to be used in this way.”
FWIW, bulletproof backpacks are just one of the wild methods folks have proposed to reduce the number of fatalities caused by school shootings.
After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in February, which killed 17 people and injured 17 more, authorities made students use clear backpacks. The logic there was that nobody could possibly sneak in a firearm inside a clear bag.
The move was roundly opposed by the student body, many of whom have argued for the much more sensible option of, you know, tightening up America’s woefully lax gun control legislation.
