Sony kick-off Michael Jackson “Bad” 25th Anniversay reissue campaign

Sony kicked-off their marketing campaign for the 25th Anniversary of Michael Jackson‘s Bad album (Bad 25) at the weekend by encouraging twitter fans to add the “whosbad” hashtag to their tweets.

Bad, originally released on 31 August 1987, will be reissued in 2012, although, as yet, no details around formats or date of release have been announced. It is very likely to be offered in multiple variations including perhaps a boxed super deluxe edition.

What is certain is that Spike Lee is filming a documentary on the making of the album, which will undoubtedly feature on a DVD element within the reissue. Last month Man In The Mirror co-writer Siedah Garrett was interviewed for this documentary (see picture below).

While we wait for reissue specifics, fans will be excited to learn that the first single from the album back in 1987 – Michael Jackson’s duet with Garrett, I Just Can’t Stop Loving You – is being re-released as a single worldwide in June. The reason this is of interest, is that in some territories (Germany, Australia) the ‘B-side’ will be an unreleased demo from the Bad sessions entitled Don’t Be Messin’ ‘Round (this may not be the case everywhere – Amazon.fr are showing Thriller album track Baby Be Me as the other song).

Bad engineer Bruce Swedien, made reference to Don’t Be Messin’ ‘Round at the time Thriller 25 was released in 2007 “Michael plays piano on it, and it’s just beautiful. Oh my God, there’s nothing like it.”

Of course, a Michael Jackson ‘event’ wouldn’t be complete without a major sponsorship deal, and to that end Pepsi announced in early May “an exclusive global partnership with the Estate of Michael Jackson” which involves putting the superstar on one billion special edition Michael Jackson Bad 25 Pepsi cans. People will be able to scan codes on the cans with their phones to download remixed tracks from Bad. American DJ and producer Diplo and Montreal-born turntablist A-Trak are known to be involved in the remixing.

The campaign is already underway in China where this expensive looking advert has been screened

There will be undoubtedly be much more to report on the Bad 25 reissue in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

In the meantime you can pre-order the I Just Can’t Stop Loving You CD single here (UK). No listing as yet on the US site.