Catchy tunes used in advertising

[SteveInNC]

The recent series of Verizon ads for their "Chocolate" phone in the US have intrigued me, not because of the phone, but because of the background music. Google searches for the song were not terribly effective since the phone also has music player capabilities, so search terms like "Verizon chocolate phone music band" give hits for every freaking review of the phone in the media.

Somehow, I did eventually find that this particular cut is Strict Machine by the band Goldfrapp off of their Black Cherry album. Poking around in iTunes, I've liked the samples from this and their other listed album, so I might have to go buy one or more of them.

This led to the question of what other really catchy, mainly obscure tunes have you heard as background to ads? Most ad campaigns use successful or well-known music because they're trying to tie into good memories associated with those tunes from your past. I'm really more interested in the obscure stuff.

Another candidate is Theme from Harry's Game by Clannad, which was used by Volkswagon in the US a number of years ago to advertise one of their cars. It's an ethereal female vocal, originally from the soundtrack of a three part TV thriller in the UK. It was used again in Patriot Games with Harrison Ford. Here is a YouTube copy of the song's video (but the audio quality sucks here due to compression).

 

[Kruppy]

Funny, I was intrigued by the same commercial. I've heard of Goldfrapp but do not recall hearing any of their music, of course until now.

One of the old Volkswagen commercials got me interested in Fluke (a UK techno/electronica band). I believe the song used was "Absurd" or "Atom Bomb" (either way both are from the same disk Rissotto, if I'm not mistaken). Because of that one commercial I now own 4 or 5 Fluke releases.

Another great song snippet was on a Jetta commercial with the car slowly driving down the street in what appears to be New Orleans. I was able to track the band name, Master Cylinder, but gave up years ago trying to locate a recording. I'll have to see what I can find on that again. Thanks for reminding me of it.

 

[SugarMedia]

You might consider checking out a few advertising agency websites and go to their 'work' section.

BBH out of London is know for matching great music to their ads, and many songs perviously not known have gone on to be best sellers. To name a few; they've done many great songs/ads for Levis and Johnny Walker. See if you can find the one of the guy moving throughout the paintings... I'm guessing the song is called, "Which side are you on." Very cool.
http://www.bartleboglehegarty.com/

Another great agency is Wieden+Kennedy (famously known for Nike & Honda). W+K has mixing studios in Tokyo which often produce their own cool sounds by famous DJ's. http://www.wklondon.com/

In my opinion, the UK is the best at matching music for TVC, many of which go on to be global campaigns.

 

[SugarMedia]

Here's another great example with some nice music. This was done by the Portland office of W+K. Upon hearing this track, I couldn’t stop humming the chorus, upon seeing the video, I can’t stop considering the song’s meaning.

Directed by Fryk Beat co-founder, Riddenpaa bassist and Portlander Eric Johnson, and North Carolinan Joel Trussell of Jason Forrest and Kid 606, this video is a great example of how the visual medium can add to a musical experience.

http://tinyurl.com/zyss8