Synopsis

A pair of appliance installers watches music videos while working in a warehouse, observing glamorous performers on television and mocking their seemingly effortless lifestyle. Their frustration and envy unfold through angular computer-generated figures, television screens, and animated versions of Dire Straits performing onstage. The video contrasts the workers' repetitive labor with the spectacle of MTV-era celebrity, turning the song's satire of pop stardom and consumer culture into a deliberately surreal early-CGI showcase.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released in 1985, the video was among the earliest mainstream music videos to use computer-animated human characters in 3D.

• The CGI was created by Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair using a Bosch FGS-4000 computer graphics system. A Quantel Paintbox was also used for digital coloring and image manipulation.

• The live-action performance footage was shot in Budapest and treated with animated color effects, creating a visual link between the real band and the blocky computer-generated world.

• The fictional videos shown on the televisions include "Baby, Baby" by First Floor and "Sally" by the Ian Pearson Band. First Floor is a play on the Hungarian name Elso Emelet, whose footage appears in the clip.

• Pearson and Blair later founded the computer animation company Mainframe Entertainment. Their later animated series "ReBoot" included a parody reference to the "Money for Nothing" characters.

• The video won Video of the Year and Best Group Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, an especially pointed achievement for a song that satirized MTV's presentation of pop performers.

• MTV Europe selected the clip as the first video broadcast when the channel launched on August 1, 1987.