The Pretender, why it works

Here's the video for discussion Foo Fighter's "the Pretender" (I can't embed it on the page).

First: the guitar intro is a brighter upbeat version of Led Zeppelin's "stairway to heaven." Stairway is one of the all time highest requested songs ever. Can't go wrong there.

The rebel vs. the government. Not only is the video saying that he's not like one of the others, each member of the band is unique in their own way: hairstyle, clothing, instrument, while the cops are all in the same black body armor, with shields.

The red/white/and black color scheme. Made popular by the White Stripes, these colors have the most contrast to each other, and say if you're designing a business sign, red/white and black/white are the most noticeable colors to go with so you can't help but notice the video. The pure white ground gets covered in a red wash (the backdrop), possibly an allusion to violence.

The cops get hosed for once. They can dish it out, but can they take it?