The Gap's 'Now That We Found Love' holiday campaign omits Third World

Once again, reggae melody and lyrics have appeared on an international marketing campaign, this time for major American clothing and apparel brand - The Gap.

Over the weekend, The Gap launched their 2018 holiday advertising campaign entitled, 'The Good Path'. Led by Grammy winning R&B recording artiste Leon Bridges, it features a team of models of all ages dancing along a red, green and yellow path, as he sings the timeless hook from The O'Jays 1973 ballad Now That We Found Love. The pathway colours gradually fan out to include others like blue and orange, but the homage to reggae is obvious.

Third World Omitted

The campaign release reads, "Through a soulful rendition of Heavy D & The Boyz original version of Now That We Found Love, Bridges creates a feel good moment that is perfectly accompanied by choreographed moves of the entire cast." This begs the question: 'why was Third World's contribution to the global popularity of that song omitted?' Band leader Stephen 'Cat' Coore, suspects that the reggae band's previously recorded version went unacknowledged because of a lack of research. "My suspicion is [The Gap] didn't do their research properly. It's important for us to bring attention to the fact that we were the ones who took the song, turned up the tempo and had a big hit," he said.

Now That We Found Love was originally written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, recorded by The O'Jays as a ballad. It was released on their album Ship Ahoy in 1973. Five years later, Third World upped the tempo. Their version was featured on Journey to Addis, released on Island Records in 1978.

"It was Third World and their reggae-disco rendition that put the song on the airwaves and made it a chart buster. Bunny Rugs added so much to the song in the studio," Gamble told The Gleaner. Third World's version peaked at number 10 in the UK and 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1991, hip-hop group Heavy D & The Boyz made another version, keeping the quick tempo introduced by Third World. "It was copied off our feel of the song. Probably the powers that be just knew Heavy D's version," Coore suggested.

Third World takes no issue with Bridges' cover. "As far as what he is doing, we don't have a problem from that standpoint. Where the conversation should be is that, it was Third World who originally did the song in that format. [Bridges] is following the trend of what we did," Coore said.

According to Gamble, the inspiration for the song was "love, peace and brotherhood. My partner Leon Huff and I always wrote songs about love, peace and happiness." As for the timelessness of the song, Gamble said that the lyrics speak for themselves.

"Now that we got it right here in our hands, we gonna spread it all over the land. People still want to have love. We did another song with Third World called Hold On To Love. It's all about love. It's all about finding and holding on to love and loving each other. After all, I'm from the city of Brotherly Love," he said.

New Album

Despite the disappointment of not being credited on the cusp of the release of the group's still untitled studio album, produced by Damian 'Jr. Gong' Marley, Coore notes, "There are two sides to every story. [The Gap] should have given credit, but on the other side, it's shining a light on us. We're happy for that, though we would have appreciated a little recognition."

Last month, Third World dropped the first single from the album called Loving You Is Easy. "What is coming out is a very diverse collection of music. It has an uptempo, almost funky kind of sound on one or two songs," Coore revealed.

He explains that another track - Third World Keeps Turning - has an 'African feel'. "We have foundation reggae beat with Third World harmonies. Damian was very specific with that. He wanted us to go back and get that sound, but with a different twist on it. It's going to be really good. We're really looking forward to it."

Launching tomorrow, November 1, The Gap campaign spans television, mobile, social, in-store and digital. The television spots will air on major networks and takeovers on Vevo, Hulu and Spotify with priority on live viewing moments within the NFL and the season's top-rated programmes.

In 2013, Volkswagen launched their Sunny Side campaign set to the music of Jimmy Cliff's iconic song C'mon Get Happy during the Super Bowl.