Advert: TUI – Discover Your Smile
Music: Woodwork Music – Ain’t Nobody (Rufus & Chaka Khan cover)
Rufus & Chaka Khan on iTunes
Rufus & Chaka Khan on Amazon
Thomson has now officially taken the name of parent company TUI, and if you didn’t already know that you most certainly do now thanks to a multi-million pound advertising campaign, spearheaded by this big production, all-singing, all-dancing TV ad, featuring 45 dancers, 50 extras, and more than 100 TUI staff members. Such a shame, then, that they’ve chosen to soundtrack the ad with a terribly insipid cover version of the very excellent 1983 soul-funk classic Ain’t Nobody by Rufus and Chaka Khan. The trend for anaemic covers of classic songs in TV ads is long established, but replacing a funky dance track with a non-toe-tapping cover would seem to render the choreography of this ad completely pointless. The version in the ad is a bespoke recording by Woodwork Music, the actress/dancer we see is Bethany Louise Slater, and the singer we hear is Alice Higgins. The ad version isn’t commercially available. Luckily you can download the Rufus & Chaka Khan original on iTunes.
