Reader wants to know: Who's the woman in the Ikea TV ad?
— -- Question: Who is the older woman who seems to be playing the conscience of the Ikea customers in those quirky ads running now? The ads are odd, but they do grab your attention.
— Regina Fagan, Sacramento
A: They are quirky and remind the Ad Team of the movie Ghost. But actress Venida Evans is meant to represent consumers' "Inner Ikea," according to Deutsch, N.Y., which created the ads.
The "Inner Ikea" campaign, which began last October, is designed to help consumers recognize that Ikea's designs give shoppers more value than you'd expect for the price.
Evans, 62, signifies the wisdom of someone who has experienced enough to tell what is a good value. She is bilingual and represents both the English and Spanish markets with this campaign.
If you think you've seen her before you may have. She has appeared in TV shows including Law & Order and in films including Transamerica and Once More with Feeling.
Q: We are starting a small business and were thinking of using Slip Slidin' Away in a video on our website or YouTube to help promote our car wax product. I would like to use the music and a few phrases from the song as muted background music. Do we run the risk of some kind of infringement from the well-known Paul Simon song from which this phrase has such notoriety?
— Bob Mesloh, Parsippany, N.J.
A:Music for any commercial use should be cleared with the music publisher that holds rights to it, says Martin Bandier, CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which licenses thousands of songs each year for TV, film, video and advertising.
"All music and lyrics that are going to be used on the website need to be licensed from the owner of the copyrights," Bandier says. "This is oftentimes the music publisher." He says the most efficient way to find a song's publisher is to consult the free, public website of one of the three performing rights societies: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (www.ascap.com), Broadcast Music Inc. (www.bmi.com) and SESAC (www.sesac.com).
