Earworms: Music in Commercials

[Rick Kitchen]

What is that horrific song that is playing while the girl leaps from car to car on the freeway, Magnum ice cream bar?  I can understand about two words of it, caterwauling.  Also, that is the brand name of a condom, and the visual while she eats the ice cream...

 

The girl is Rachel Bilson, from "The OC" and "Hart of Dixie".  The song is "Leap" by Supercharango:

 

[Brattinella]

Thanks for replying, Rick!  I listened to it JUST up to where the woman soloist joins in... YIKES!  What a screeching harpy!  I listened to it on youtube, and the comments are almost universally positive, folks LOVE it.  Yuck.  Thanks again!

[InDueTime]

Thanks to that Lipton iced tea ad, I currently hear, "A TASTE OF PEACH-IOCITY!" in my head from time to time.

[friendperidot]

I'm also really tired of the guy screeching about being born free for Chevy dealers. He may have been born free, but he's sold his soul now.

[janie jones]

It's Kid Rock, and what I'm tired of is hearing my husband complain about having to hear Kid Rock.

[friendperidot]

Janie Jones, don't know if you were talking to me, but I wouldn't know if Kid Rock slapped me upside the head! lol, I'm old. Actually if he slapped me upside the head, I'd have to sue so I guess then I'd know who he was. But if he's the one screeching about being born free, he's annoying.

[zillabreeze]

It's not a specific song, but I get stabby at anything "sing songy" pop artists sounding like nursery rhymes.  Right now, it a phone - "I'm living the life of dreams, lalala..."

A year or two ago another phone co. did the same. AAAARGHH

[Brattinella]

Ah, GOD, zillabreeze, that one is the WORST!

[zillabreeze]

Brattinella - then the baby is screaming.  That's your dream?  It just makes me think, "Thank dawg, my kids have four legs and only whine a little!"

[selkie]

I'm starting to miss the Gatorade World Cup commercial. The editing is just so tight in terms of getting the song to sync with the soccer players, and I found myself watching all the way through every time I stumbled upon it:

 

[friendperidot]

there's an ad for something...might be men's deodorant or shower soap or cars for all I pay attention. But when I do notice, a bunch of guys are marching through something that looks like an automatic car wash indoors, chanting/ singing something like "power soap" or "power soak", I don't know, but then I sort of march around my house chanting. Commercial fail, because as much as I've heard it I don't know what the product is. Don't particularly care either.

[riley702]

there's an ad for something...might be men's deodorant or shower soap or cars for all I pay attention. But when I do notice, a bunch of guys are marching through something that looks like an automatic car wash indoors, chanting/ singing something like "power soap" or "power soak", I don't know, but then I sort of march around my house chanting. Commercial fail, because as much as I've heard it I don't know what the product is. Don't particularly care either.

I LIKE that commercial! It's Dial For Men power scrub (which is what they're chanting), and it leaves them "honkingly gorgeous" (car horn honks on cue) and is "proudly over-engineered". It's dumb, but it makes me giggle.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0DNImwjDrk

Edited August 7, 2014 by riley702

[MrsEVH]

Just saw a commercial for Fiber One using "Rock You Like A Hurricane". The Scorpions probably didn't give their permission so they used some knock off version.

[pandora spocks]

"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea is stuck in my head for some inexplicable reason.  I've heard it in a cell phone commercial and programming for E!  It's the musical version of sticking my tongue in a sore tooth.

[AimingforYoko]

Now when I think of a band to sell Acuras, the first one that comes to mind is the Sex Pistols. On the other hand, they are covering a Paul Anka tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM7PcYMH67c

[riley702]

It's more nails-on-chalkboard than an earworm, but the music in those manic Fiat ads sound like demented carnival music - from hell!

[annzeepark914]

If you live in an area where there are PNC banks (maybe just the metro DC area?), you know how irritating their inane, "instrumental" tune is (just plunking/plinking notes).  They've been sponsoring Nationals games the past few years and I have to be w/in arms reach of the remote so I can grab it and hit the mute button whenever that obnoxious little tune comes on.  Same with Empire floors...they've been playing the same ad for, what, 10 years already?

[riley702]

Same with Empire floors...they've been playing the same ad for, what, 10 years already?

Oh, I think it's longer than that - 15 or 20?

[Prevailing Wind]

Near me is a burger joint that also has Chicago-style hot dogs.  They had a big poster in the store about how you know you're in Chicago and it had a bunch of Chi-town localisms along with "You know the phone number for Empire" - I showed that to the guy behind the counter and we, in Georgia, sang in unison: "Eight hundred five eight eight two three hundred...EmPIRE (today!)"

 

Really...it's not particular to Chicago anymore.

[Jamoche]

 "You know the phone number for Empire" - I showed that to the guy behind the counter and we, in Georgia, sang in unison: "Eight hundred five eight eight two three hundred...EmPIRE (today!)"

 

Really...it's not particular to Chicago anymore.

Back when cable television was new and just something you got in places too far away from a big city to get anything over the air, WGN Chicago was one of the channels that we got in southern Alabama, unmodified from the local broadcast. So the non-800 version of that jingle has been spreading since the 70s.

[Brattinella]

I kinda like the Empire commercials, especially since they kept the cartoon version of the founder in the commercials after he died, as a tribute.

[Rinaldo]

I remember the Empire jingle from my Chicago childhood, c. 1952. If I ever imagined "Someday I'll grow up, move away, and get away from that sound," it was one of my sorrier predictions.

[SoSueMe]

Nationwide commercial

 

Gin Wigmore - Kill of the Night

 

 

 

[riley702]

So that's what she's saying! You damn kids get off my yard! ;)

[Bastet]

Until now, I wasn't even sure if the sub-woofer of my computer speakers worked.  Cool. 

[GreyBunny]

"Dancing in the Flowers" from the Trolli gummi crawlers ad is on a repeating loop in my head.

 

Help.

[AntiBeeSpray]

 

Thank you Macaroni Grill... now I have "I like big butts..." stuck in my head on loop. XD

[Bruinsfan]

What with the gigantic servings of high-calorie pasta and cheese, they should have just kept the original song as is.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Bruinsfan

[captain1]

I like the Nationwide commercial with the football guy (I don't follow football that closely so I don't know if he is a real player or an actor) who keeps putting other words to "Nationwide is on your side" - especially the "chicken parm you taste so good".  It must be a good commercial because the jingle is most certainly stuck in my head!

[riley702]

That's Peyton Manning!

[captain1]

Thanks!  (Blushing with embarrassment)

[Brattinella]

Yep, they finally have created an earworm that stuck!

[Bastet]

My favorite part is "Losing feeling in my toes" as Manning sits in the ice bath. 

[riley702]

And because I'm 12, I always think, "That's not the only place you're losing feeling!"

[InDueTime]

This Target ad uses one of my favorite songs by Parov Stelar.  Whenever it comes on I get that song stuck in my head for hours.

 

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

[mmecorday]

I'm not sure why someone thought that a Queenesque rock aria would sell Bacon Bowls, but here you go:

Edited October 8, 2014 by mmecorday

[janie jones]

That song is ridiculous.  I love it.

[Sandman87]

The latest Jeep commercial starts with Michael Jackson singing:

 

As I was driving down the highway

My Jeep began to rock

 

I get that they want to use a Jackson song to promote their product, but is it really such a great idea to use one that underscores the fact that Jeeps are less stable than regular cars?

[Popples]

I get "I know you're mad Jake, but you got to get your own" stuck in my head ALL. THE. TIME.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CVSJxRN0zQ

[Muffyn]

A slow, haunting version of "You're the One That I Want" keeps playing for some godawful reason.  Why?  Why!?!?!?!?  I don't know what the commercial is for.  I just cannot fathom using that song for anything or doing a remix.  No matter how they sing it, in my head I hear Olivia Newton John and John Travolta.  Be gone, evil song, be gone! 

[ilovethedark]

This can be a combination earworm and scratch your head; the Geico using the Wallflowers "One Headlight" for their motorcycle commercial. I think whomever approved the song choice only heard the "We can drive it home/With one headlight" and said, "Yes! This is brilliant for our motorcycle riders".

 

http://youtu.be/Y_TrJODGJAg

 

They seemed to miss the whole attending a girl's funeral and not being able to escape. I've loved this song since middle school and I had to do a double-take when I first saw the commercial.

 

[selkie]

Back when cable television was new and just something you got in places too far away from a big city to get anything over the air, WGN Chicago was one of the channels that we got in southern Alabama, unmodified from the local broadcast. So the non-800 version of that jingle has been spreading since the 70s.

 

I was only as far away as western Michigan, and yeah, got WGN and all the Chicago commericals too, including the ones for Empire's competitor, Lincoln, who was still trying to explain seven digit phone numbers in the 1980s.

 

 

In more recent music notes, I actually ended up tracking down the 'Suit' song from the Diet Coke plane commercial and buying it

 

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7NOl/diet-coke-economy-class-song-by-boom-bap-pow

[xls]

I can't decide if I love or hate this song.

I Am The Best by 2NE1

Edited October 27, 2014 by xls

[janie jones]

I've decided I hate it.

[Kate the Great]

I still kind of miss the Kinks' "Picture Book" commercial for HP. Beyond the song, there was a lot of clever photo/camera work, too:

[peeayebee]

I forgot about that commercial. It's excellent. Did it win a Clio?

[mmecorday]

 

The latest Jeep commercial starts with Michael Jackson singing:

 

As I was driving down the highway

My Jeep began to rock

Thanks for sharing the lyrics. I was convinced that he was singing, "My jeep began to rot."

[Brattinella]

Please, for the LOVE OF GOD get the Wayfair commercials off my TV!  That song is branded into my memory now, and not in a good way!  Folks, this advertising is NOT working in your favor, get it?

[janie jones]

I hate that song.  And also, there's woman playing air guitar on a bed, and my husband had to explain to me that that's what she's doing, because it looks completely hump-y to me and I never knew why she was humping her bed.

[Shriekingeel]

Sigh. Those Miller Lite "subliminal" commercials brought "Joy" by Apollo 100 back.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_ekQ1RTmzBc