Awesome Music in Ads

Awesome Music in Ads by Roxanne McDonald

Some say it’s a sellout move, others beg to differ.

The other day at a neighborhood picnic, I was wrinkling my nose at hearing some favorite music being what I thought was bastardized in a car commercial. My neighbor gently corrected my single-mindedness, reiterating comments from some musicians that he said express their pleasure at “finally getting some recognition/exposure.”

“Anyone,” he paraphrased, “ thinking otherwise—that bands are selling out to commercialization—are idiots.”

Now, I’m pretty non-confrontational, in person, anyway, so I just thanked my friend for the new take on music in ads. But when I got home, I decided that no, I was not settling for this attitude overall.

True, the appeal to authority approach is and has been an effective one for decades, with everyone from actors who play doctors on TV to celebrities peddling hair and beauty products to singularly sexy and identifiable voices doing ads for everything from cars to candy (James Spader’s voice seems particularly convincing in Acura ads, for example, while Sally Kellerman—of M.A.S.H. movie—can be id’ed talking seductively to and about the Milky Way bar).

And okay, granted, some musical artists need income, need to find their niche. For example, when I was a kid, my mother gifted me a copy of an album by Jake Holmes, formerly of the Yardbirds. I played the hell out of that album, and to this day can sing the lyrics. Then I heard that distinctively crisp voice as if it was a blast from a past I thought no one else had access to—on television in an ad for deodorant or something.

Now, you might know, Jake has had a tough go in the rock world, having his classic “Dazed and Confused” allegedly ripped off, for example. He also has a virtual career making backdrop music and jingles for some of the biggest companies in the marketing world. Maybe, then, musicians like Holmes have an appreciation for the income, regardless of what the product is they are hocking [or helping to hock].

But I mean, come on, does Dylan really need either more exposure or recognition, or even more money? How much of a need for the same do, say, John Lennon and Nat King Cole have, being DEAD and all?

I am also okay with some, just some, of the car ads’ music; I just get so frustrated with diapers having voices of my sacred musicians in the background or doing the running taglines.

Anyway, I leave it up to the buying public to decide— consciously or unconsciously—how great or disappointing it is to have our sacred stars of rock and other genres belting out a bid for our buying books, boots, or bottles of baldness cure or whatever.

Some Musicians’ Commercial Work

The Beatles

“Hello, Goodbye” (sung by Sophia Shorai) Target

“Revolution” Nike

Bob Dylan

“Love Sick” Victoria’s Secret

BTO [Bachman Turner Overdrive]

“Takin’ Care of Business” Office Depot

Britney Spears

“?” Pepsi

Cat Power

“Hanging on the Telephone” Cingular

The Chemical Brothers

“Galvanize” Budweiser

Devo

“Watch Us Work It” Dell

Dinah Washington

“Relax Max” Doubletree Hotels

The Go! Team

“Huddle Formation” Honda Civic

Jake Holmes

“America’s Getting Into Training” Amtrak
“Aren’t You Hungry For Burger King Now?”
“Be all that you can be” U.S. Army
“Be a Pepper” Dr Pepper
“Best a Man Can Get” Gillette
“Come see the softer side of Sears”
“Raise your hand if you’re SURE”
“We fly the world” Pan Am
“When we say less is more, we mean less is more!” Charmin

Johnny Cash

“I Walk the Line” (sung by Megan Wyler and Adem Ilhan) Levis

Lily Frost (with husband, José Miguel Contreras)

“The Two of Us” Chevy Cobalt

Natasha Beddingfield

“Unwritten” Pantene

The Postal Service

“Such Great Heights” UPS

Wilco

“Either Way,” “Sky Blue Sky,” “The Thanks I Get,” and “You Are My Face” VW

Stay tuned for more….

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