10 Good Songs Used in Big Advertising Campaigns

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Posted 2020-07-12 by Steven G ⇒ follow

Ah, advertisers. Can't get rid of them, can't take them out the back and burying them up their necks in the midst of a nest of fire ants. I generally cannot stand advertising, and very often people will talk about an alleged "great" advert and I have no idea what they are talking about. But even I am not immune to some advertising. When I hear a song I like, my mind makes me take notice. Sure, the adverts themselves are nearly always rubbish, but advertisers do insist on using a good song either to tap into that nostalgic part of the human mind or to make them look cool by association. Nine times out of ten, I couldn't even tell you who the advert was for. I just heard the song, thought that was cool, then muttered under my breath about selling out, even though I know that it is one way artists can actually make money from their art.

All right, so let's focus on TV commercials. So many have used great songs to sucker us into paying attention to them. The problem is, a lot of these adverts are primarily single-region. Bob Seger's song 'Like A Rock' sold Buick motor vehicles in the USA, but very few other places. Status Quo's 'Down, Down' advertised a supermarket in Australia. Nina Simone's 'My Baby Just Cares For Me', I've been told, sold perfume in Europe.

So, what I decided to do was look at advertisements or advertising campaigns that were used around the world, or in many parts of the Western World. This meant a lot of research and a lot of looking at adverts. Not fun.

So, some rules:
1) I have to like the song. The advert can be complete trash, the company can be evil, but it is the song I will look at.
2) The campaign had to be shown on two or more continents.
3) The song had to have been recorded before the campaign. This is important, because some songs surprised me by having been originally written for advertising campaigns!
4) No political campaigns. First, politicians are not cross-cultural. Second, I am not going to subject myself to political campaigns.

I have put these in alphabetical order of the company. I cannot guarantee finding the adverts online from a site that the link will remain available, but I will at least put the original song up.
**'Are You Going To Be My Girl?' by Jet
advertising: Apple – iPod**

The imagery of this advertising campaign was inescapable for a long time – those silhouettes with white iPods against a brightly coloured background, leading to more parodies than I think any advert has suffered through ever. But having Jet play the song over it for said silhouettes to dance to was a decent choice, as it really stood out.
Relevance to brand: Yeah, can't see it, except that it was a decent rock song out at or around that time that the target audience could relate to. Just a random song choice, it seems… or maybe a little-known band willing to let their track be used to help get decent exposure. Okay, I can see it from Jet's point of view, and maybe Apple's for cost reasons. But relevance? No, not really.

**'Vertigo' by U2
advertising: Apple – iPod and iTunes**

This is really no more than an update of the Jet advert, using a bigger name band (who actually appears in the ad), but with the same idea – a rock song to dance along to. But this time iPod is combined with iTunes, so you get your music choice for your iPod? I don't know how it works. I don't use Apple products.
Relevance to brand: Not sure. There was clearly a working relationship, considering in 2014 every iTunes user received a U2 album for free, which happened long after this campaign. But as for the song choice? Can't see it.

**'Viva La Vida' by Coldplay
advertising: Apple – iTunes**

I am not the biggest fan of Coldplay, but this is one song of theirs used to advertise Apple's music service that I really enjoy. I've never used iTunes, no idea what it's like, but the song is pretty cool and the advert certainly doesn't hammer the brand at you over and over. It lets the song stand.
Relevance to brand: It's a good song, and maybe Coldplay and Apple had some sort of partnership, but I think the relevance is obvious – Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, has a daughter named Apple. Yes, I am serious. At least it's something.

**'In The Air Tonight' by Phil Collins
advertising: Cadbury chocolate**

On this list, this is the one and only advert that I actually like as an advertisement. It has become absolutely iconic. The gorilla doing something every air drummer does at least once in their life, only with a real drum kit. Phil Collins' classic track looks glorious, and Cadbury hardly gets a look in. I didn't know who it was advertising until I'd seen it three or four times. One of the only adverts I enjoy watching. Fun fact: this ad did not air in the USA.
Relevance to brand: None. They had some weird adverts at the time, and this is just another. Because seeing a gorilla playing the drums means chocolate… right?

**'I'm In Love With My Car' by Queen
advertising: Jaguar**

One of Queen's great non-human love songs , written and sung by drummer Roger Taylor. The advertisement is car p*rn, lingering on the shots of the car in subdued lighting. It's about as subtle as a hit in the head with a brick.
Relevance to brand: Almost perfect. A song about being in love with a car paired with a luxury car model? It was like it had been written for the advert. This is a case where the song was chosen brilliantly. Nothing more to say.

**'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' by Marvin Gaye
advertising: Levis**

This advert was pretty popular when it came out in the 1980s. I know my girlfriend back then loved it. It was, at the time, an advert you could not escape. And the song is such a smooth song, sung by one of the great voices of the 60s and 70s. But there is a problem – I had to hunt because I could not remember the brand it advertised. I knew it was clothing, but that was it. Sometimes the imagery overwhelms the message.
Relevance to brand: If it's there, I can't see it. The lyrics don't mention wearing jeans or going to a laundromat; it's about a guy discovering his woman is cheating on him. Unless you wear Levis if you're cheated on? Nope, don't get it.

**'You Get What You Give' by The New Radicals
advertising: Mitsubishi**

Yep. A (sort of) one-hit wonder band and their one hit song, a song that you could not escape, and a Japanese car manufacturer. What? I guess it's because they wanted to use that counting opening (and not the best bit of the song – that's the bit at the end where they name check corporate evil and then some celebrities). That's about all I can say. Great song, weird campaign.
Relevance to brand: Uhh, none. Nothing, Zip. Zero. Nada. I cannot see the pairing at all. It smacks of an advertising executive hearing a song on the radio and then throwing it at the first campaign that hit his or her desk.

**'Start Me Up' by The Rolling Stones
advertising: Microsoft – Windows 95**

An iconic Rolling Stones track paired with the new operating system that was being touted by a fledgeling Microsoft corporation as a much more user-friendly version of the old Windows 3.1. It was more user-friendly, and it did change the way people could use computers, and expanded computer use beyond nerds and geeks. Yes, that was me. Amigas were cool. And the track just grabbed your attention straight away. The Rolling Stones doing what they do so well.
Relevance to brand: The use of the 'start' button so prominently in the advert, and the fact that it was that simple, paired with lyrics about starting up – it is actually not a bad pairing here. I struggle to think of another song that would (a) say the same thing, and (b) be a song so good people would pay attention to it. Good choice.

**'Revolution' by The Beatles
advertising: Nike Air**

The commercial that shattered a friendship. See, The Beatles' back catalogue was finally put up for sale. Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono got together to try to buy it. They were outbid by Michael Jackson, a friend of Macca. And then, against the wishes of Paul and Yoko, Jackson decided to license some Beatles songs for commercial use. Apparently, the friendship never recovered, and Jackson never understood why. Sorry. Great song, the Beatles doing real rock. Bad advert.
Relevance to brand: A song about overthrowing the system advertising a brand of sneakers owned by a corporate giant entwined within the system. Probably the worst pairing here. Nike claimed that it was because they wanted to start a revolution in shoes. They didn't, and studies in the early 90s indicated that Nike shoes were actually not that good.

**'Bohemian Like You' by The Dandy Warhols
advertising: Vodafone**

For most people, this advert was the thing that told the world who the Dandy Warhols were. I listened to Triple-J in Australia at the time and so I knew some of their music already, and to me I was actually glad people understood why I liked the band when they heard this song on the advert. Yes, a part of my younger self decried this selling out, but when I discovered how much this was going to mean to the band going forward, I stopped caring about that. And they are still there, releasing great albums and tracks… and is it okay to say Vodafone had something to do with that? It feels dirty saying it, though.
Relevance to brand: Yeah, not seeing this one, either. Not sure how having a mobile phone is 'Bohemian', when that generally means some-one who goes against social norms, particularly in the arts. Or some-one who comes from Bohemia. Neither really fits. At all.

And there you have it, ten great songs using in big advertising campaigns. In some cases, it served to remind people about a song maybe forgotten, in some cases it exposed a band to a wider world, and in some cases it was just a matter of using a big name to sell something. The synergy of brand and song was not always there, but these are still great tracks.

Happy listening!