Sean Lennon denies Yoko selling out his Dad for money

Oh, sure, Yoko Ono might have pocketed a bunch of cash for letting Citreon chop John Lennon into an advert. But Sean Lennon is keen to defend his mother - it's not about the money at all:

Writing on micro-blogging site Twitter, Sean Lennon said the ad was "not for money" but was intended to keep his father "out there in the world".

"Having just seen [the] ad I realize why people are mad," he wrote. "But [the] intention was not financial."

Yes. That'd be it. Given that it's about a full ten minutes since The Beatles were all over the media with the computer game and the re-releases, it's quite possible that people might have forgotten Lennon ever existed.

But... hang on: why would you need to make a car advert to promote Lennon?

[Lennon] defended his mother, saying she was merely "hoping to keep dad in [the] public consciousness".

The ad, he said, meant "exposure to [the] young". "Not many things as effective as TV," he continued.

Yes. That's what you think of when someone mentions John Lennon, isn't it? "He's that guy who was on the Ed Sullivan Show a while back, wasn't he?"

Sean could say "look, my Dad loved money as much as anyone and Yoko's just worked out that he's reached a point where he's more valuable as a cash-cow than a pretend hippie. If he hadn't been shot, Lennon would be doing Nespresso adverts and writing start-up jingles for Microsoft." Trying to pretend that flogging cars is simply a way of keeping a philosopher's flame alive just makes everyone look silly as well as grubby.