20 commercially successful bands/artists that will never be heard in a commercial

(inspired by Mr. Snrubs' "fuck off")

1. Kraftwerk

2. Led Zeppelin

3. Minutemen

4. Nick Drake

5. The Beatles

Beatles are in tons of commercials!

6. Aaron Copland

6. The Blue Man Group featuring Gavin Rosedale

8. Todd Rundgren

9. Beck
10. Pavement

^^^serious answers

11. NWA

12. Neil Young

13. Michael Jackson

14. Ice Cube
15. Geto Boys

Led Zeppelins' music is featured at least in ads for Verizon (Kashmir) and Cadillac (Rock'nRoll)

16. Pink Floyd

14. Ice Cube

um

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZ3Fs9758E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd15YVb2M6M

17. New Edition

I'm assuming all of Balls' posts are "jokes"

18. David Bowie & Tina Turner doing an homage to 'Weird Science'

It's a little different as it was always their theme music, but The Minutemen have been in bunches of commercials for Jackass

19. Rolling Stones

Minutemen did also Volvo, but i think that doesn't count

19. Creedence Clearwater Revival

The Shins

20. The Doors

21. Radiohead

22. Raymond Scott

20. The Doors

― Great Goulessarian! (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, October 28, 2010 7:40 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

A Buick ad used a song of theirs in the 60s, but they've declined all subsequent requests.

I know I've heard that build up part of "Touch Me" in some commercial or another.

23. The Who (despite naming an album The Who Sell Out, those guys would never really sell out...right?)

youtube says Pink Floyd gave their music for bananas (Dole)

the Doors commercial never aired FYI - Morrison axed the idea after the other three initially approved it

Bananas are good LSD food, iirc xp

balls is getting the thread concept willfully wrong it seems.

If you make a thread that says ' 20 commercially successful bands/artists that have been heard in a commercial' he will post the proper responses.

cadillac wanted 'break on through' but densmore nixed it. zeppelin used to be an impossible get and then started licensing their music (for a pretty penny) in order to 'reach younger listeners'; pretty sure both stances purely the result of savvy business sense of page, can't imagine he has any principles beyond 'if there's grass on the field play ball'.

the use of Radioheads creep in the Social Network trailer could be questionable. its a choral cover though.
Raymond Scotts' Powerhouse was used for VISA (not considering his lesser known "sonic textures for broadcast commercials")

Joan Jett has steadfastly refused all offers, IIRC.

'hate myself for loving you' was used in an ad

Crap, really? Bummer.

Didn't know the Doors/Buick ad never aired.

In the last few years, two of the Doors have been trying to get Densmore to cave on licensing, but Densmore wouldn't budge.

attempt at serious answer: has billy joel ever been in an ad?

fritos ad w/ fake tom waits surprisingly hard to find

I heard "Natural's Not In It" last Monday in an X-Box commercial, so cross of the Gang of Four, and take note that playing videogames solves the "what to do, for leisure" problem in the song.

i swear i've heard 'pressure' in an ad but i can't remember what for.

Bananas are good LSD food, iirc xp

― Johnny Fever, Friday, October 29, 2010 12:45 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"If you feel it, peel it"

24. Tom Waits

a cover though
John Lewis advert Billy Joel's She's Always a Woman Fyfe Dangerfield cover

"They always want me to do ads for underwear and cigarettes, but I never did them.
I did one and I'll never do it again."
http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/commercial.html

another attempt at a serious answer: bruce springsteen?

10. Pavement

^^^serious answers

― Great Goulessarian! (Shakey Mo Collier), den 29 oktober 2010 01:29 (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not serious enough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mNFIjLB94E

I love that Korean commercial! Hilarious use of the Pave

i don't get this thread. joke answers aside, basically everything mentioned in earnest eventually will turn up in an ad for something - provided that it remains popular long enough. stuff that won't get used = the stuff that no one cares about 50 years from now.

Tom Waits was used in this PSA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OttTECq6j0

does that count? I would be very surprised if he accepted any payment for it at least.

I am watching a commercial for Due Date on tv right this very moment and "People Are Strange" is in it. So the Doors caved after all these years for Zach Galifianakis?

REM? Maybe? How about Nick Cave? Pearl Jam?

69. Blue Men Group (not featuring Gavin Rosedale of B.U.S.H.)

70. 7 Mary Three

sike 7m3 were featured in a home depot commercial circa '96 suck it losers i tricked u

definitely heard 'red right hand' in an ad at some point, pearl jam were basically in a target ad for their last album

films are not ads, fyi

True, but commercials for films are.

19. Creedence Clearwater Revival

distinctly remember "Fortunate Son" being used in a car commercial this past decade.

your memory is faulty

"A highly edited version was used in a Wrangler commercial because John Fogerty "long ago signed away legal control of his old recordings to Creedence's record label, Fantasy Records."[8][9] In this case, the advertiser eventually stopped using the song, as Fogerty related in a later interview:

Yes, the people that owned Fantasy Records also owned all my early songs, and they would do all kinds of stuff I really hated in a commercial way with my songs. ... Then one day somebody from the L.A. Times actually bothered to call me up and ask me how I felt, and I finally had a chance to talk about it. And I said I'm very much against my song being used to sell pants. ... So my position got stated very well in the newspaper, and lo and behold, Wrangler to their credit said, "Wow, even though we made our agreement with the publisher, the owner of the song, we can see now that John Fogerty really hates the idea", so they stopped doing it.:"

23. The Who (despite naming an album The Who Sell Out, those guys would never really sell out...right?)

selling out to sell shitty merch vs. selling out to sell a shitty David Caruso cop show

25. Weird Al Yankovic

another attempt at a serious answer: bruce springsteen?

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, October 28, 2010 8:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Nope. He still owns/controls all his own shit, and turned down a multi-million offer from Chrysler in the mid-80s (so they went with Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes for the "The Pride Is Back, Born In America" ad campaign). At the time, the idea that a rock musician would be offered -- and turn down -- that kind of cash was pretty much unheard of, about as much as a sitting president implying said musician's endorsement.

Nick Drake has been used in a commercial in the uk recently.

Slipknot

Coldplay

Unless that Viva la Vida ad for iTunes counts, damn. I guess I meant incidental music

ICP

Nick Drake has been used in a commercial in the uk recently.

"pink moon" was in a VW ad a decade ago

26. Rush

Nick Drake has been used in a commercial in the uk recently.

Speaking of Nick Drake, his Volkswagen ad from ten years ago is considered by advertising experts to be the most influential commercial of the last decade (in terms of influencing other commercials and pop culture, not VW sales)

I wouldn't argue that, at least as far as upscale commercials go.

26. Rush

― corey, Friday, October 29, 2010 1:14 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

"Tom Sawyer" was used in a Nissan ad a few years ago.

27. Fugazi

28. Kevin Drumm

http://sleevage.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/major_threat_nike_flyer.jpg

xp - not quite the same, but still..

lol the itunes ad for "viva la vida" WAS the song. and the reason for its commercial success.

If a commercial has already used Gang of Four's "Natural's Not In It" — a song about alienation from a capitalistic society — then never say never about anyone.

^^ I heard Eric Dolphy's "Hat and Beard" in an ad for the American Plastics Council, so yeah, I don't know what would surprise me at this point.

2. Led Zeppelin

― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Thursday, October 28, 2010 7:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm assuming this is a joke.

re: that Minor Threat mockup:

Minor Threat's music and iconographic album cover have been an inspiration to countless skateboarders since the album came out in 1984 (sic). And for the members of the Nike Skateboarding staff, this is no different. Because of the album's strong imagery and because our East Coast tour ends in Washington DC, we felt that it was a perfect fit. This was a poor judgement call and should not have been executed without consulting Minor Threat and Dischord Records.

Ha, I misread. Commercially successful.