Video Killed the Radio Star

[Patrizsia]

Have you ever heard a song you like being used in a commercial? I don't like it. Then everyone just associates your song with that particular product.

I just saw this song used on a Radioshack commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kag95ZkntYg

And somehow a certain restaurant got their hands on this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8cCPH1qnYI

Car companies seem to really like those heavy metal songs in their advertisements. I know Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath have been employed to peddle American automobiles despite their being English bands.

There's gotta be even more, probably good songs that I only know from 30 second clips on TV. Anyone know any songs like that?

[Vetalia]

I got a good laugh when Visa used Geoff Muldar's rendition of Brazil (from the film of the same name) to push its credit cards. The irony of using a song from a movie that lambastes the very culture the company was promoting through its ads was priceless. Of course, maybe the marketing department only saw the Sheinberg edit and went from there...

[Mad hatters in jeans]

Youtube video killed the radio star you mean.
yeah those advertisers love irony, but folks will run out eventually. There's only so many combinations of funny words you can string together until people finally realise that what you're trying to sell is toilet rolls with a baby on the front.

[Nadkor]

"Hoppipolla" by Sigur Rós pretty quickly became "the music from the Planet Earth ads", which was slightly frustrating.

[Dododecapod]

"Counting the Beat" got used as the music for Target ads here. Crappy ads, good song.

[Sierpinskistan]

The Levi Strauss jeans company were the first television ads to associate a nostalgic pop song with a brand. Quentin Tarantino adoped this concept to associate movie scenes with popular songs. Moby's "Play" is the album used in the most TV commercials.

Because you asked...

[Cosmopoles]

When the Janis Joplin song 'Mercedes Benz' was used in the Mercedes adverts most people seemed to think that the marketing folks were oblivious to the irony of using an anti-consumerist song to sell their product, but I disagree. The joke is surely on those who oppose consumerism, when their attempts to mock it sell products - probably to many people who rebelled against their parents' consumer values in 1970 but drive luxury cars 25 years later. Its like anti-culture jamming.

[Fassitude]

Jose Gonzales' version of The Knife's Heartbeats used in that stupid bouncing ball advert for television sets.

[Bears Armed]

Johnny Cash actually had to threaten a lawsuit to stop one company using his song 'Ring of Fire' in their adverts for a haemorroid ointment...

[West Failure]

Johnny Cash actually had to threaten a lawsuit to stop one company using his song 'Ring of Fire' in their adverts for a haemorroid ointment...

He could have made piles from that...

[BunnySaurus Bugsii]

Completely irrelevant story, based on the thread title.

I was in school. I heard the song on the radio "Video killed the radio star." I liked it.

Then I tried to explain to a classmate, how Video was a Roman god, and radio stars were stellar bodies which were only visible in the radio spectrum.

I wasn't farting around. I was serious. I really thought that was what the song was about.

[BunnySaurus Bugsii]

Johnny Cash actually had to threaten a lawsuit to stop one company using his song 'Ring of Fire' in their adverts for a haemorroid ointment...

He could have made piles from that...

OUUUUUCH!

[BunnySaurus Bugsii]

When the Janis Joplin song 'Mercedes Benz' was used in the Mercedes adverts most people seemed to think that the marketing folks were oblivious to the irony of using an anti-consumerist song to sell their product, but I disagree. The joke is surely on those who oppose consumerism, when their attempts to mock it sell products - probably to many people who rebelled against their parents' consumer values in 1970 but drive luxury cars 25 years later. Its like anti-culture jamming.

Might give some satisfaction to those parents, too. The ones who tried to raise their children without consumerism, but later discovered the joys of it.

"Well, my daughter you know. She's not consumerist or anything, she only buys stuff she needs, and gets something which will last her a long time. She has a Volvo."

[Jello Biafra]

Have you ever heard a song you like being used in a commercial? I don't like it. Then everyone just associates your song with that particular product.

I don't like it because it's pretty much the ultimate sellout.

[Secruss]

[Kantria]

I really don't give a damn. I don't stop listening to songs I like just because the rest of the world suddenly starts to listen to them.

[Pope Joan]

I approve of the way Mazda used all music for their ads, with no hype.

Just sleek sexy machines speeding through the night (containing sleek sexy couples)
and this surprisingly good music you never heard before
(not the usual already top 40 stuff from John Mellencamp or Bob Seeger, although i like them both)

examples include "Can't Get Enough" by The Infadels, and "Don't Upset The Rhythm" by The Noisettes