5 Songs / Good Songs Ruined by Commercials
5 Songs is a weekly series where we point out the strange, the grand, and the unique connections between our favorite songs. Let’s get weird.
Words by Chris
This is a contemporary phenomenon. With bands looking for alternate means to earn $$$ in the post-label era, and various companies becoming interested in advertising to the increasing demographic of 18-33 year old hipsters, there comes a time when you are drinking (preferably with a loved one) and watching television and your favorite song is raped by the promotional machine that only wants you to consume art for their profit! That’s when drinking increases. Disclaimer: I do understand that these bands offer their songs freely to earn money, so just bear with me. If you can remember any others, feel free to drop a line.
“Modern Drift” / Efterklang (Volkswagen)
For example, this relatively straightforward song about trying to understand the world around you is degraded to selling you a car that will cost you two months down the road because the window will fall down in the passenger-side door.
“New Slang” / The Shins (McDonald’s)
No comment.
[Ed. note: We searched far and wide across the vast expanses of the information superhighway and it seems as though this video enraged/disappointed/baffled so many people that it has been stricken from the modern canon, so to speak, remaining extant only in our bitter memories. It aired during the 2002 Winter Olympics and featured a young baby and its father, declaring, "There will be a first step, a first word, and, of course, a first french fry." These are our only clues. Please tell us if you can locate a video of this ad, if only so that our collective shame may resurface and force this abomination back into the merciless void from whence it came. In the meantime, enjoy the song's official music video above as reparations.]
“Well Thought Out Twinkles” / Silversun Pickups (Pontiac)
This one hurt because this song was a big part of my summer of 2006. The video for this song was so badass that it overpowered visions of Jim’s car when I hear this song now. Sorry Jim, it’s a hell of an automobile.
“List of Demands (Reperations)” / Saul Williams (Nike)
Also an incredible video, by an incredible performer, and a fucking badass song, overshadowed by Nike’s attempt to make practicing for track & field really dramatic and important. Dude, the song is about social unrest in the institution! Whatever.
“Pink Moon” / Nick Drake (Volkswagen)
This one seemed surreal to me, not just because it seems like stepping on a man’s grave, but this song (and album) means a lot to a lot of people. I was shocked by this. Hey whatever, Germans, do your thing.
Bonus: Every Black Keys Song
It seems like there’s a new Black Keys song on TV every day, and it’s getting a little weird. There’s a Zale’s commercial with the Keys? Seriously? At some point, I want to hear Dan Auerbach offer to a capacity-crowd, “We would like to take some time to remind you fellas out there, have you thought of popping the question?” Argh.
Oh commercials. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t watch TV without ‘em. What song/commercial pairing gave you that “Oh shit. Come on!” feeling? Leave us some comments and let us know where and when it hurt.
Filed under: 5 Songs, Not Blake, Jim, or Brendan
I got tired of having people refer to Spiritualized’s “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” as “that VW song.”
And the of Montreal/Outback Steakhouse fiasco is..well…a fiasco.
AMEN on the of Montreal fiasco. I believe Kevin Barnes has been pretty quiet about that one, too, for whatever reason.
I think that the amount of people who had never heard of Nick Drake and fell in love with his music because of that commercial far out weighs whatever precious nonsense you were referring to.
There was a segment of the Colbert Report a while back that pitted Vampire Weekend vs. the Black Keys against each other to see who had their music in the most ads. I think they had their songs in 4 or 5 commercials each – I don’t remember the exact amount, but it was a lot!
The other thing about the Nick Drake ad was that it doesn’t even piece together the song or use a certain section of it. It just starts playing it and then stops when the commercial ends. I’m not sure whether that bugs me more or less than ads that just loop the same instrumental part, or skip around in the song.
But yeah, @Jason, if it can introduce a lot of people to his music, I’m all for it. It’s just nice to think that there are other, less capitalistic ways of doing so.
@Vicki: I remember that, it was hilarious!
Yay! my first troll