Pop Goes the Ad: Pop Songs in Commercials

I don't think I'd ever heard "It Wasn't Me" until today--not on any of the Golden Decade compilations.

I don't know if it's because I've barely watched actual tv in almost a decade, or if it's because quite a few of these commercials seem British, but I don't think I've ever seen of these commercials before in my life.

I'm guessing a number of them are British, including the one I'll probably vote for, the Plastic Bertrand--fantastic. The girl jumping around on the bed reminds me of Zero de Conduite. All for a bread company!

I don't understand why the Delta 5 one seems to have struck a nerve (among music nerds, I mean). I'd never even heard of that band, never mind that song, until people started griping about the commercial.

I think pop songs are perfectly suited to commercials. I have never understood the problem. Some of those - the Hovis commercial, the Hummer commercial - are very nice little short films. The fact that there's a corporate logo tacked on at the end is almost incidental.

If you can look past any objections to their very existence

I object to the implication that we should

there are few things I relate to less than the ability to watch a second of TV advertising without wanting to break something

That version of "Over Under..." isn't the Yardbirds: close, but the singer is definitely not Keith Relf.

Found this other version of that ad with "Woo Hoo" by the 5.6.7.8's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNAmMy_XGI8

One of my favourite songs, and I was duped--ouch!

(xpost) Well, as I said up front, I hate enough commercials myself that I understand. But I hate them on aesthetic grounds, not moral or ethical; unperson's "nice little short films" is much closer to my own view. Liking a really well done commercial is not that different to me that taking aesthetic pleasure from a song or a film that came into being primarily to make a busload of money--Jaws, as an example. Spielberg brought art to that; he could just as easily thought of nothing but the money and produced something crude and worthless. (If he had, though, I doubt the film would have made as much money.)

That Chevy commercial with the other song does nothing for me; the (fake) Yardbirds are integral to the overall effect.

Agree; I know (and like) the 5,6,7,8's song but it doesn't work nearly as well with that footage as the Yardbirds song (which I'd never heard before today).

The Allstate/"Opportunities" is the only one of these I can recall having seen out in the wild; I don't really watch anything that requires enduring commercials anymore (only Jeopardy, really), and I suspect that quite a few of these don't play on Canadian television anyway.

I quite like the Hummer/"Happy Jack" (voting for that), the Marc Jacobs/"Teen Age Riot" and the Apple/"Mind Your Own Business" ads (don't know who Delta 5 are, and wasn't aware of the controversy). None of these made me angry--I've lived with pop songs in ads my whole life, so I'm probably just as used to hearing a lot of songs that way as I am hearing them in movies--though the Target/"I Feel Love" one is a bit tacky.

i loathe adverts with irrational passion but i kinda like the Marc Jacobs ones

I do too--but not even one of these (though a couple are underwhelming).

I'm pretty close to crypto:

1. Plastic Bertrand
2. Who (perfectly in sync with the song)
3. Delta 5 (probably--I've looked at it a few too many times already)

The Marc Jacobs is great, it's just so short--leaves me wanting to hear more of the song.

I used to love the iPod ad with Feist, though not as much as the video itself.

I dare a North American bread company to use Elton Motello's "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" in their next ad. I double-dare them.

".. the smell of DOUGH is such a high..."

oh yeah I remember the Marx Jacobs one that was rad, def voting for that

lol typo

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

While suffering through one of those endless pre-shows at a movie theatre tonight, there was a Scotia Bank commercial that used Melanie's "Brand New Key." Not particularly well, but it was there, and I felt something.

Dylan had already licensed songs for commercials when had control of his catalogue (close to a dozen, I'm guessing); now that he doesn't, I would expect lots of this in the coming years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcuycbgujdg

I like this one--better than some of the ones he oversaw. (I bet companies are more intimidated by the material, and more inclined to fuss over mood, etc.--"Let's get this right, or everyone will hate us"--than he was.) I've posted before about how moving I find it to hear Dylan at his best in a public setting, and in its way, this is kind of a public setting.

Watching baseball, just saw this for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAGVLUKdlP0

I'll give it a B.

Watched the overtime yesterday and saw a commercial with "I'll Be Your Mirror." Which I know isn't all that surprising in 2024, but if you can put yourself in the mind of 40 years ago is kind of amazing.

A couple of the instrumental bits from "Heroin" were used in a Mitsubishi (IIRC) ad like 15-20 years ago, but (also IIRC) it was quickly pulled and then put out again with different music.

More VU: "I'm Sticking With You" in an ad for Montefiore Children's Hospital.

Self-XP

It was for the Nissan Xterra! As discussed in one of my first ILM threads: Do Ad Agencies Even Listen To The Songs They Choose For Car Commercials These Days?

It's the last on in this supercut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw_GuVMBatE

The first ad in this set uses "TV Eye," so there clearly were hipsters at work here.

Don't remember ever seeing that, that's something...In 1979, I was working hard to get hold of their out-of-print studio albums (all of them, I think). In 2024, Super Bowl commercial.

I may be the only person on the planet that saw it, but there was very briefly an ad for Ore-Ida (tater tots or french fries, can't remember) that featured Golden Brown

I'm worried that one day there'll be nothing left to be snobbish about.

LIKE A ROCK

There's been a recent ad for the Chevrolet Silverado that uses the Stooges' "Down on the Street." That's another album that was out of print for a while in the '80s.

"Venus In Furs" selling tyres from 30 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNrV8pL9Lbw

LOL Tom D just beat me to it. Directed by Tony Kaye:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Kaye_(director)

yah that was inescapable in the uk

30 years ago, that's amazing. Took a little longer over here, I guess.

xp
and was the first time I ever heard vu. I didn't go on to make TV commercials tho.

Talking of early Velvets usage. Not an advert but I'm sure I've mentioned on ILX before that "Candy Says" was used in Fassbinder's 1972 TV series "Eight Hours Is Not a Day".

The 1969 German teen comedy Ich bin ein Elefant, Madame used I'm Waiting For The Man in its opening credits. Even had an entire credit for "Musik: Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground" though Andy Warhol's name was bigger.

I'm shockingly old to have learned that.

The whole film is on Youtube!