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[personal profile] jon_chaisson
...how I'm seeing more and more commercials, most likely made by people my age, with the alt.rock songs playing in the background.

It also amuses me how, if one really knows the song well, how inappropriate the song could possibly be within the context of the commercial.

Cases in point:

--M&M commercial using The The's "This Is the Day" (a song about moving forward, even though your life has been pretty crappy for the most part)
--the ubiquitous cruise ship commercials using Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" (I mean, really--why use a song whose first line is here comes Johnny in again, with his liquor and drugs, he's a sex machine, he's gonna do another strip tease??)
--last year's Kodak (I think) commercial using The Cure's "Pictures of You" (kind of a sad song about letting go, if you think about it)
--AARP using the Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" (Not sure...I think it's about just being pissed off about everybody else being in a good mood?)
--and recently, a commercial (forgot--I think it's a kid-centric thing, though) using Supergrass' "Alright" (basically about being juvenile delinquent)

It's like watching The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and catching all the "I can't believe they let that pass the censors" moments...guess it's that Gen-X style knack for knowing obscure references that amuses me.

I'm not complaining, mind you...just finding it amusing...

Date: 2007-02-03 03:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] head58.livejournal.com
There's an AMEx loans commercial that uses Spinal Tap's "Gimme Some Money", which I find really realyl funny.

Date: 2007-02-03 03:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] head58.livejournal.com
Oh, and also:

Somehow, a jam and jelly company in Austria recently decided it wanted to use the song "Coin-Operated Boy" for a TV ad. The song has nothing to do with spreadable fruit. But the band has earned about $40,000 over two years for licensing the song — a windfall Brian Viglione says was fantastic.

He describes the commercial: "It showed this woman kind of bounding about through her house, and experimenting with different ways of using this spread and playing, along to the 'Coin-Operated Boy' song. And both of us thought it was hilarious and harmless."

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