Earworms: Music in Commercials

[mmecorday]

OK, a friend of mine had an idea about the use of "Werewolves of London" in the Raisin Bran commercial. He thinks it's actually a snippet from Kid Rock's "All Summer Long," which samples both the Zevon song and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."

[bilgistic]

On this page (the commercial):

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wWqb/kelloggs-raisin-bran-crunch-apple-strawberry-fishing

it says that the song in the commercial is "Werewolves of London".

The ad description is:

Quote

On a father-daughter fishing trip, the duo pokes fun at each other. The girl tells her dad, who's eating a bowl of Kellogg's Raisin Bran Crunch, that his crunching is scaring away all the fish. Despite his noisy chewing she ends up catching one, but it's so small her dad jokes that they'll be eating cereal for dinner.

Dad eats as noisily as a werewolf does? I don't know.

[Prevailing Wind]

Zevon used to go fishing in the Florida Keys with Carl Hiaasen. CH frequenly said, "You're spooking the bonefish!" (WZ liked to practice his piccolo on the boat.) Perhaps Dad, with his crunchy cereal, is also spooking the fish. Really obscure fact, but it's true about WZ & CH.

~or~ the folks that bought the marketing rights to Zevon's songs are really aggressive about getting the songs placed in ads.

[Silver Raven]

OK, I like the song "Sh-Boom", and I sing it every time the Toyota ad comes on, but it's on way too often.

[chessiegal]

I'm curious as to why some music is used in a commercial when it seems to have no connection to the product advertised. 1) Heinz ketchup uses "In The Mood" big band tune, which I love, but why? And Dyson(?) using "This Little Light of Mine" to sell their robot vacuums. We used to sing that in Sunday school. Because they're catchy?

[HipOldBat]

I love the song in the Transitions ad, so much so that I looked up the original song/video (The Sun, Parov Stelar feat. Graham Candy):

Graham Candy is the singer - he's a 27 yr old singer/dancer/songwriter from New Zealand.  I would love to have this song for my ringtone, but I can't find it on Zedge or other ringtone sites.  Very happy and uplifting.

[Bort]

Well played, Applebee’s. That Celine Dion song totally gets stuck in my head every time I see the commercial. 

[Annber03]

I haven't heard that song in years. I remember loving it when I was, like, 12, 13 years old. 

[Tom Holmberg]

I have a soft spot for Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold," even in a Modelo beer commercial.  "You want to become an alcoholic... You work at it."

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/A63r/modelo-work-for-it-song-by-ennio-morricone

[QQQQ]

Is L'Oreal using Queen's Don't Stop Me Now because of the chorus' ensuing lyrics or despite them?

 

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball
Don't stop me now
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call
Don't stop me now ('Cause I'm having a good time)
Don't stop me now (Yes I'm havin' a good time)
I don't want to stop at all

Yeah, I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars
On a collision course
I am a satellite I'm out of control
I am a sex machine ready to reload
Like an atom bomb about to
Oh oh oh oh oh explode

[Sandman87]

There's an ad running for 23andMe DNA testing that starts out with the sentence "meet your genes." The background music is taken from one of the Sims games. I think it's Sims 3. Interesting that EA Games is licensing music from their properties.

[Silver Raven]

14 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

There's an ad running for 23andMe DNA testing that starts out with the sentence "meet your genes." The background music is taken from one of the Sims games. I think it's Sims 3. Interesting that EA Games is licensing music from their properties.

Is the ad in Simlish?  :)

[Sandman87]

6 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

Is the ad in Simlish?  :)

Unfortunately no. That would be fun. It does have the look of the box cover for a Sims game though; the grid of colored squares with different people in them.

[Brattinella]

This song from Futurama is an earworm for me, a lovely one.  I couldn't figure out where to put this, so here it is.

Edited October 6, 2018 by Brattinella

[emjohnson03]

I was pleasantly surprised to hear the song,. "Carry On" by The Samples on a commercial for MSNBC for the midterm elections.

Great song. My sister loved them in college and this was in 1998! So this is a older song.

"But I'll meet you at the election
When I vote for the hope of this land

Carry on
Carry on"

 

[LoneHaranguer]

Cadillac has a new ad using "Bang Bang". Catchy tune. It must have cost them a fortune, so I guess they're serious about going after the young female demographic (featured in the ad). But, I have to wonder if they actually paid attention to the lyrics beyond that it mentions their brand ("she got a booty like a Cadillac").

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dXDB/2019-cadillac-xt4-joy-song-by-jessie-j-t1#

[janie jones]

5 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Cadillac has a new ad using "Bang Bang". Catchy tune. It must have cost them a fortune, so I guess they're serious about going after the young female demographic (featured in the ad). But, I have to wonder if they actually paid attention to the lyrics beyond that it mentions their brand ("she got a booty like a Cadillac").

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dXDB/2019-cadillac-xt4-joy-song-by-jessie-j-t1#

Until I got to the bolded part, I thought this was talking about the Nancy Sinatra "Bang Bang" and was surprised this song was popular with the young people these days.

[smittykins]

Is that the same one Cher did?(That's what I thought.)

ETA:  Yes, found it on YouTube. 

Edited October 30, 2018 by smittykins

[LoneHaranguer]

15 hours ago, janie jones said:

Until I got to the bolded part, I thought this was talking about the Nancy Sinatra "Bang Bang" and was surprised this song was popular with the young people these days.

I had forgotten about that one. I found it on YouTube. I got a little chuckle over how she rolled over to the edge of the platform rather than try to stand up in her short skirt.

[friendperidot]

These threads give me more and more ads to get irritated over! Some have just been background noise I could ignore until I read about it. Other ads annoy me from the first time I see them (ahem, Frank Thomas and his wink, wink, nod, nod and stupid Nugenix, but no music for those, thank goodness). But today, I noticed the Bang, Bang car commercial, I'd heard it, but since that was no song I'd ever heard before, I could shut it out. No more, thanks, guys. That was so never a Nancy Sinatra or a Cher song. But now, I have something new I have to find the remote for so I can mute it.

[mmecorday]

All I know is, if "Baby Shark" ever finds its way into a commercial, I will burn my TV.

[friendperidot]

Quote

All I know is, if "Baby Shark" ever finds its way into a commercial, I will burn my TV.

I've only heard that thing once and I'm in total agreement.

It's enough to make me turn off the tv entirely and go back to reading books about 18 hours a day.

Edited November 1, 2018 by friendperidot

[Brattinella]

3 minutes ago, friendperidot said:

I've only heard that thing once and I'm in total agreement.

It's enough to make me turn off the tv entirely and go back to reading books about 18 hours a day.

I mute the TV more often than I actually have the sound on.  Always mute for commercials, at least.

[Prevailing Wind]

I heard that commercial, too, and thought of Ford. Although, y'know, he never did say that. But still, pandering to the legend is funny.

[sempervivum]

God help me, but 'All the Ways' Target jingle by Meghan Trainor. It's basically a musical clone of last season's 'Meet Me in the Middle' by Maren Morris, which was just as bad/earwormy.

[friendperidot]

since it started airing recently and I can't get it out of my head, I guess that makes it an earworm, Round N Round by Perry Como, I think, I haven't looked it up and I was a little young when it came out.

[Prevailing Wind]

"Find a wheel, and it goes round, round, round as it skims along with a happy sound as it goes along the ground, ground, ground til it leads you to the one you love..."  That one?  Yeah, it's Perry Como. Want the mp3 of it? I have it.

[InDueTime]

On 11/7/2018 at 6:01 PM, friendperidot said:

since it started airing recently and I can't get it out of my head, I guess that makes it an earworm, Round N Round by Perry Como, I think, I haven't looked it up and I was a little young when it came out.

 

On 11/8/2018 at 7:26 AM, Prevailing Wind said:

"Find a wheel, and it goes round, round, round as it skims along with a happy sound as it goes along the ground, ground, ground til it leads you to the one you love..."  That one?  Yeah, it's Perry Como. Want the mp3 of it? I have it.

That songwriter gets stuck in my head when I hear the ad, too. The Target version of it is a cover by Sia.

[cynicat]

As long as I don't keep hearing "A Marshmallow World" this year in every other commercial I'll be a happy camper.

[chessiegal]

5 minutes ago, cynicat said:

As long as I don't keep hearing "A Marshmallow World" this year in every other commercial I'll be a happy camper.

There was 1 year where Cooking Channel was using it to promote their shows around Christmas. I'm not sure how in my 60+ years I had never heard it, but originally I thought it was something Cooking Channel had written for their promos until I heard it in other venues (looking at you iHop where I heard it on their piped in music).

[docmatt]

I don't like Macy Gray, and I hate Walmart. But the Walmart ad with "Beauty In The World", Not bad at all

[Aryanna]

I've had the Can you feel it song from the Amazon commercials stuck in my head the last few days.

[Brattinella]

5 minutes ago, Aryanna said:

I've had the Can you feel it song from the Amazon commercials stuck in my head the last few days.

Me too, and I resent it.

[mmecorday]

Great, now I do, too!

I really hate that song in the Hershey commercial with the heartbroken teenagers whose parents think everything will be OK once the kid chokes down a Hershey miniature. It goes something like, "I'll celebrate ya, appreciate ya." It's mopey, bad and dumb.

Edited December 7, 2018 by mmecorday

[funky-rat]

13 hours ago, Brattinella said:

Me too, and I resent it.

That's actually one of the few later Jacksons songs I don't mind.  I stopped caring much for Michael after the "Off The Wall" album, but I did like "Triumph" that he did with his brothers, which is where "Can You Feel It" came from.

Edited December 7, 2018 by funky-rat

[Brattinella]

1 hour ago, funky-rat said:

That's actually one of the few later Jacksons songs I don't mind.  I stopped caring much for Michael after the "Off The Wall" album, but I did like "Triumph" that he did with his brothers, which is where "Can You Feel It" came from.

Wow I had no idea that was the Jacksons.  I was satiated with Michael after Thriller.

[funky-rat]

17 minutes ago, Brattinella said:

Wow I had no idea that was the Jacksons.  I was satiated with Michael after Thriller.

Yeah, it's Michael and his brothers, as adults (as opposed to Jackson 5).  The "Triumph" album was pre-thriller, but not sure by how much.  I have it on CD - picked it up cheap somewhere.  Same with "Off The Wall".  I have my original copy of "Thriller" on vinyl, but I keep it mostly for nostalgia purposes.  That album just burned me out.  I'm not sure who sings it on the commercial - NOT the Jacksons.  There's a video for "Can You Feel It" that was really technologically advanced for it's time.

Edited December 7, 2018 by funky-rat

[AntiBeeSpray]

On 12/7/2018 at 12:10 AM, Aryanna said:

I've had the Can you feel it song from the Amazon commercials stuck in my head the last few days.

Same here. And thanks to this post, it's back in my head again. XD

[Aryanna]

What's the deal with She's A Rainbow being used in commercials these days? Acura has a commercial with that song and I just recently saw a Dior commercial with Jennifer Lawrence that uses that song.

[Aryanna]

I know, two posts in a row...not cool. And after this one you guys are gonna say This girl's so negative. She doesn't like anything.

I don't know who these ad agencies are that choose all these old songs for commercials but they seem to always choose the worst ones.

The one for the Citi mobile app where the guy's walking around with two kids on his ankles. That whole commercial is cringy. I hate the song they choose. The guy looks like he's pretending to have fun with these kids more than actually having fun. They don't look related at all. The kids' laughter is so obviously dubbed in and fake. I hate hate hate this commercial and it seems to be playing continuously on my TV.

The Amazon Echo ad about daddy's favorite song. The dad shows his daughter his favorite song and she listens to it through the years and then in her college dorm room tells Alexa to play it. Girl, your dad's favorite song sucks. He has no musical taste.

The Walmart commercial that uses Let the Good Times Roll. I hate this freaking song. Make it stop. It's like they sat down and purposely wrote one of the most annoying songs. It is not pleasant to my ears at all.

[Brattinella]

I grew up with all those songs and love them.

[mojoween]

I hate how Walmart throws a good song in an ad and calls it a day thinking they’ve struck gold, but I've made my peace with the fact that that train has left the station.

However.  I do not like them using “Let the Good Times Roll.”  Some things should still be sacred, dammit.

[Brattinella]

I just saw an ad for googol and it had Beatles "Help!" as background music.  It was a house band, but they were pretty close.  I would prefer the original, in every case.

Don't even get me started on current "pop" music.   Shudders.

[Brattinella]

1 hour ago, Brattinella said:

Don't even get me started on current "pop" music.   Shudders.

Like the current Juvederm commercial.  Horrid song.

[AntiBeeSpray]

On 12/11/2018 at 8:36 PM, Brattinella said:

Like the current Juvederm commercial.  Horrid song.

Word. Not to mention the commercial itself.

[Aryanna]

What's with this Word stuff?

[mojoween]

Noooooo you can’t use “If You Leave” by O.M.D. in a retirement ad.

[Prevailing Wind]

4 hours ago, Aryanna said:

What's with this Word stuff?

I have no idea. I use WordPerfect X8. And I use Lotus 123, even though it's no longer producing updates and is pretty much defunct as a product. The version I have still works beautifully. BOTH those programs are so much more intuitive than any crap Microsoft has ever created.

And while I'm bitching, when did this stupid "heart hands" gesture start becoming a thing? It's styoopid.  (Charles Grodin was on Letterman once, stating that styoopid is a much stronger version of stupid.)

Bah, Humbug. I've gotten TWO Xmas cards so far and both of 'em are from Jewish people. I guess I've alienated my Christian friends. Bwaahahahaha.

OK< back to earworms...some drug is using "The Beat Goes On" for a cardiac drug.  I had a friend that worked for a Congressman in DC a number of years ago; their office was next to Rep. Sonny Bono's.  She said she lost count of how many people would walk by his office humming "The Beat Goes On."

[mmecorday]

Quote

What's with this Word stuff?

Word is shorthand for "isn't that the truth?" or "I totally agree with you." It's an 80s thing.

Oh, and I wish that Echo Dot hadn't used "Ooh La La" in its TV ads. I used to like that song and now, not so much.

[Jamoche]

On 12/17/2018 at 7:15 PM, Prevailing Wind said:

And while I'm bitching, when did this stupid "heart hands" gesture start becoming a thing?

Used to be I only saw it on bad pregnancy photos on http://youarenotaphotographer.com