Alanis Morissette appears in a new ad for UScellular that, ironically, encourages customers to use their phones less. It features dozens of references to her song “Ironic,” as well as the song itself, and but it also shows Alanis being guilty of being on her phone, too, which was her idea.
“Initially there was an element of me kind of pointing fingers,” she tells ABC Audio, calling it “very un-Canadian.” She laughs, “And so, being Canadian, I thought, well, the most compelling version of this would be if I were busting my own chops.”
The ad also includes a shot-by-shot recreation of the car scene in the original “Ironic” video, where four different Alanises wear four different outfits and hairstyles.
“It felt like putting on an old suit,” she says. “And I have to give the director tons of credit for having nailed everything, right down to costumes.”
Mother-of-three Alanis knows what it’s like to try to limit screen time and says what works for her is to encourage her kids to really think about what it is they’re watching.
“I’ll just sit next to them and I’ll become as involved as I can,” she says. “I’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s misogynistic,’ or ‘Ooh, that sounds really disconnected’ … and that’s been one way for me to address it.”
The partnership offers fans a chance to win a trip to see Alanis on her current tour, during which she lets a fan sing the first verse of “Ironic.”
“The feedback I’ve gotten is that’s the song that has become … the most sung-along with,” she notes. “And I just thought, if there were a song that there might be some lyrics super-memorized, it might be that one.”
She adds, “It’s a happy one to sing along with, even though the lyrics can be kind of harrowing.”
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