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Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots
Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:54

Image for article titled Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots

, the pop singer heralded as a car enthusiast icon with the release of the radioactively catchy “” single back in 2016, has let everybody down with her new music video for a song titled “.” The error on display here is truly embarrassing, a spit in the face, painful, and impossibly easy to avoid. And yet!

Here is the music video, released today, for Charli’s new car-themed song which, again, is titled “White Mercedes”:

Here’s my problem with this music video for “White Mercedes:” There isn’t a single fucking white Mercedes in it, despite prominently featuring many vehicles! There’s not even any Mercedes at all, white or not.

To be sure, let’s go over the cars that do appear:

Image for article titled Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots

This is not a Mercedes. It is an eighth-generation (with additional wing and hood scoop tacked on, for some reason).

Image for article titled Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots

This is not a Mercedes. It is a second-generation pickup truck, heavily modified with a lift, “monster truck” wheels and tires, a bumper winch, and a roof-mounted dancing platform.

Image for article titled Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots

Neither of the two cars being crushed here is a Mercedes. The car on the left appears to be a 1999-2002 facelifted . The car on the right appears to be a 1985-1989 sedan.

Image for article titled Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots

This is not a Mercedes. It is a .

Image for article titled Charli XCX Must Think We're Idiots

The truck to the left there is not a Mercedes. It is a crane truck manufactured in Belarus.

No other cars appear in the video. That leaves us with five cars, one horse, one pop star, some firefighters, and zero Mercedes-Benz models.

To try to understand if “Mercedes” in this song could have some other meaning besides the car, let’s check the lyrics:

I take all of these blue and yellow pills

But nothing seems to last like you

You’re chasing after something that you’ll never catch

Woah

Like a white Mercedes, always been running too fast

When your heart is breaking, you keep on taking me back

Hate myself, I really love you

Hurting you feels like I’m hurting as well

All I know is I don’t deserve you

All I know, Charli, is that I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m assuming maybe whoever she is lamenting over may have owned or driven a white Mercedes-Benz at some point? I also looked around for , thinking maybe the horse’s name is “Mercedes” or something dumb like that, but could not find anything comprehensive.

I’m not sure “white Mercedes” makes any sense in the context of the song, and it certainly does not in the context of the video!

Apparently, it’s slang for drugs. But you didn’t hear that from me. Also, it’s clear they either sourced or painted the cars in the video white—I hold that they were well aware of the car reference and still fucked it up!

This isn’t the first time an artist has failed to include the title-named car in the song’s music video. Lana Del Ray insulted us all when she failed to put a white Ford Mustang in the music video for her song, which explicitly references “revving” a car, and can not be interpreted as the horse of the same name, titled .

If you’ve been paying attention, cars are actually a pretty big theme in whispery dream-pop artist…

And here we are again, watching a music video which prominently features cars, for a song titled after a car, which does not feature the actual car. Did these pop stars learn nothing in 2017?

For an example of how to do it right, here is the video for “Did You See” by J Hus, which actually manages to feature the Mercedes mentioned in the song’s lyrics:

Pop stars, don’t let this happen again. Blame your production managers or whatever, sure, but to do this right requires the bare minimum of effort. You can reach out to [email protected] for help if you ever need it.

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