Poor choices for ad jingles - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Redlemon · 09-28-2005, 10:21 AM

I just pulled this out of Time Magazine (no link, it's behind a subscription login):

Quote:

Eat Beef--Just Ignore the Song
By LISA MCLAUGHLIN

Advertisers are using hit songs to flog everything from Cadillacs to contraception. But are all those peppy tunes really as upbeat as they sound in the ads? Here's a look at some of the lyrics Madison Avenue left on the cutting-room floor:

•BOSTON MARKET To launch its new beef offerings, the restaurant chain is using the Rev. Horton Heat's psychobilly standard Eat Steak: "Eat beef, eat beef, it's a mighty good food." Considerably less appetizing is the verse that gets omitted: "Look at all the cows in the slaughterhouse yard/ Gotta hit 'em in the head, gotta hit 'em real hard/ First you gotta clean 'em, then the butcher cuts 'em up/ Throws it on a scale, throws an eyeball in a cup."

•ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES The pumping beat of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life might seem well suited for the fun-loving, rock wall--climbing tourists in the cruise line's TV commercials. But the original song is a tale of a heroin addict: "With the liquor and drugs/ And a flesh machine/ He's gonna do another striptease."

•TARGET The retailer is sending kids back to school with a G-rated rewrite of Sir Mix-a-Lot's raunchy rap Baby Got Back--cutely remade as "Baby Got Back ... Pack." The original isn't so kid-friendly: "So ladies if the butt is round/ And you wanna triple X throw down/ Dial 1-900-MIXALOT and kick them nasty thoughts."

•ORTHO TRI-CYCLEN LO This birth-control ad uses There She Goes as covered by Sixpence None the Richer. The song, first performed by the La's, has long been rumored to be about heroin. Among the missing lyrics: "She calls my name, pulls my train/ And no-one else can heal my pain." --By Lisa McLaughlin
From the Oct. 03, 2005 issue of TIME magazine

I love stuff like this. I know I've noticed other poor choices in the past, but I can't recall any at the moment. Anyone have any additions?

Derwood · 09-28-2005, 10:44 AM

I love RHH.

Of course, who can forget Reagan using "Born in the USA" as his campaign theme song. Did he bother listening to the lyrics of that one?

Charlatan · 09-28-2005, 10:52 AM

Quote:

•ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES The pumping beat of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life might seem well suited for the fun-loving, rock wall--climbing tourists in the cruise line's TV commercials. But the original song is a tale of a heroin addict: "With the liquor and drugs/ And a flesh machine/ He's gonna do another striptease."

I saw this one on the air and cracked up... These kind of weird choices always make me wonder if the account executive ever listened to the song...

Charlatan · 09-28-2005, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derwood

I love RHH.

Of course, who can forget Reagan using "Born in the USA" as his campaign theme song. Did he bother listening to the lyrics of that one?

Did Spingsteen let him use the song? That doesn't sound right. I know other artists have flipped when their songs were used illegally... politicians have to pay a license fee and/or get permission to use music just like anyone else.

El Pollo · 09-28-2005, 10:57 AM

There was a car commercial that used Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols.
The commercial just used the first line "You've got a great car" but omitted the second line "Yeah, what's wrong with it today?"

Redlemon · 09-28-2005, 11:13 AM

Oh, if we're going to get into politics... how about George W. Bush using "Cat in the Cradle", or (I think) the mayor of Allentown honoring Billy Joel for writing Allentown?

Glory's Sun · 09-28-2005, 11:19 AM

hehe good thread Red (w00t I'm a poet and didn't know it!)

I can't think of any right now.. I need to start writing them down as there are several I see each night.

Derwood · 09-29-2005, 06:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

Did Spingsteen let him use the song? That doesn't sound right. I know other artists have flipped when their songs were used illegally... politicians have to pay a license fee and/or get permission to use music just like anyone else.

I think it was used at rallies and such, but not in paid adverstising

Derwood · 09-29-2005, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guccilvr

hehe good thread Red (w00t I'm a poet and didn't know it!)

I can't think of any right now.. I need to start writing them down as there are several I see each night.

Mazda used another Reverend Horton Heat song several years back. It was called "Big Red Rocket of Love", which is about a car, but clearly is a euphimism for a dick

Martian · 09-29-2005, 11:08 AM

I don't watch enough tv to add to the list, but I remember the first time I saw the Royal Caribbean Cruise ads with Iggy Pop in the background, that amused me to no end.

Charlatan · 09-29-2005, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derwood

I think it was used at rallies and such, but not in paid adverstising

They have to pay for rallies as well. This requires a public performance fee. You can't legally just play any piece of music you want at a public gathering.

Largely this is ignored by the rights holders in the instances of weddings and such, but when it is a political party on the campaign trail they are generally either pay or the use of the song is given as a donation.

Kadath · 09-29-2005, 05:08 PM

My current head-basher is the O'Jays' Love Train for Coors Light. That's a sin.

sadistikdreams · 09-29-2005, 07:32 PM

I think the execs just listen to the hook and/or the chorus. If is sounds... related, they'll use it.

trickyy · 09-29-2005, 09:29 PM

i do think trying it in the ear is worth a shot, let's go on a cruise...

how about the stones Windows 95 campaign
Start It Up was played, gracefully omitting the "you make a grown man cry" lines
(wow, i got sick of that song.)

pan6467 · 09-30-2005, 06:15 AM

H-P using the KINKS "Picture Book", kind of falls into this I guess.

Although it's a great song and the comercial is cool as hell, the song is about taking pornographic pictures of loved ones and masturbating to them when you are old.

At least that was what I always was told, and the lyrics can lend themselves that way.

Kadath · 09-30-2005, 06:29 AM

Ooh, how about Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started" for the NBA playoffs a year (or two) back? Yeah, good work. Let's get retarded in here, let's get stoned, let's get stupid.

Glory's Sun · 09-30-2005, 06:34 AM

Didn't Marilyn Manson do a promo for football or something?? I'm still wondering if it was premier of the GFL or something (Goth Football League)

trickyy · 09-30-2005, 08:20 PM

kadath - hell bent?

black eyed peas - not that they are master songwirters, but are they willing to change any lyric for any reason? (don't funk -> don't mess)

back to the topic with a couple obvious ones...
fortunate son has been used in patriotic wrangler ads
pink moon (suicide?) for volkswagon

Strange Famous · 10-01-2005, 02:41 AM

worst taste ever would be a car advert with the song "take my breath away" playing in an ad break during a documentary on the Hillsborough Disaster

(if youre not familiar with that, police actions directly caused the death by suffocation and crushing of around 100 soccer fans at Hillsborough Soccer Stadium - the police basically forced too many people into a stand causing many people to be trampled and crushed to death. The Manic Street Preachers song South Yorkshire Mass Murder talks about the role of the South Yorkshire Police - "take my breath away" rather tasteless for obvious reasons)

Derwood · 10-02-2005, 08:49 AM

bands like Modest Mouse, Jet and Polyphonic Spree all got serious exposure from ads

Redlemon · 10-03-2005, 05:33 AM

Ah, I remember the one I was thinking of: Chumbawamba's song "Pass it Along" was adopted by General Motors. If you only know Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, the group is more anarchastic-punk than pop. The lyrics themselves aren't the inappropriate part...

Quote:

Ah, where do you want to go today?
Ah, somewhere, somewhere, you can never take me
Ah, where do you want to go today?
Ah, somewhere, somewhere, you can never take me
Pass it along, sign on, switch off
Pass it along, sign on, switch off
Send this song to twenty people
Add your name, don't break the cycle
Pass it along by word of mouse
Save the world, don't leave the house
(Repeat chorus)
So here's your final resting place
Your heaven is protected by security gates
Shut out the world, it's getting worse
Save yourself, don't leave the house
(Repeat chorus)
Brave new world, population one, just pass it along
(Repeats)
Pass it along
(Repeats)
Switch off

...but the funny part is how they used the money.

Quote:

GM thought nothing more after handing over a cheque for $70,000 to the band for the use of the song. But behind the scenes, Chumbawamba were negotiating with anti-corporate activists to see if they would take the fee and put it to use. The band contacted CorpWatch, a US campaign group aimed at 'holding corporations accountable', to see if it would 'put the money to good anti-capitalist use if we accepted the ad'.

CorpWatch had no trouble in agreeing. Chumbawamba vocalist Alice Nutter then sent an email 'in solidarity' to IndyMedia, a radical global network, to enquire if it would accept half of the money. 'We're offering this money to you because the work you do and information you supply is invaluable,' she wrote.

After much anguished internal debate, IndyMedia also agreed to accept. As a result, the two leading campaign groups are now spending GM's money to mount an aggressive information and environmental campaign - against GM.

'We're planning on using some of the money to document some of the social and environmental impacts of General Motors itself,' Joshua Karliner, executive director of CorpWatch, told The Observer.

'It's known for resisting the kinds of change in production that would assist in reducing climate change, and for helping debunk the science of global warming. If the company knew how its fee was being used, I'd imagine it would make executives squirm in their big comfortable leather chairs.'

The company last night said it was unaware of the work it was financing. Dayna Hart, publicist for Pontiac at GM, said: 'I didn't know that. I did know [the band] had quite a political background in England. That's very interesting.'

Strange Famous · 10-03-2005, 01:53 PM

the idea of a mass production car company using the reference "Brave New World" in an advert just takes irony that one step too far, really.

trickyy · 10-10-2005, 10:04 PM

m.i.a.'s song that mentions a bmw is used in a honda commercial!
i think the song is galang

rev_skarekroe · 10-12-2005, 04:17 PM

Psychic TV's "Roman P." with its uplifting chorus ("Are you free? Are you really free? Are you really really really really really free") was used in a Volkswagen commercial in the '90s.
The song is about Roman Polanski and the rape that caused him to flee America, and also includes lines about Sharon Tate's murder by the Manson Family.

Catdaddy33 · 10-18-2005, 05:56 AM

One that sticks out to me wasn't a song used but the title of the song. Back when Nirvana was breaking out with "Smells Like Teen Spirit". The Teen Spirit deodorant folks had commercials that had teen girls saying shit like "Do you know what smells like teen spirit?". Then they realized that the song was a complete slam on them and they pulled it.

anleja · 10-18-2005, 01:42 PM

"Dust in the Wind" by Kansas is in a Subaru ad:
"All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see... don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky, it slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy..."

What kind of an ad jingle is THAT?!

Also, the Bob Dylan Victoria's Secret commericals to his song "Lovesick" ... it gave my brain weird sensations as I saw the beautiful women moving their bodies as Bob Dylan stared at me.

ngdawg · 10-20-2005, 07:29 AM

HP using the Cure's Picture of You. I downloaded that song from hearing it on the commercial, then realized this is NOT a happy song.

Glory's Sun · 10-20-2005, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ngdawg

HP using the Cure's Picture of You. I downloaded that song from hearing it on the commercial, then realized this is NOT a happy song.

when is The Cure <B>ever</B> happy??

Tophat665 · 10-24-2005, 07:42 PM

I think it was a Huyndai commercial that used Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick. "Your Sperm's in the gutter, your love's in the sink." I think I will sit this one out, as a matter of fact.
// drives a Huyndai

Phillips, using the Beatles - Getting Better All the Time and cutting it at the very last beat before John says "Can't get no worse." They might as well have not bothered, I hear it anyway.

trickyy · 12-31-2005, 04:50 PM

circuit city uses the cars' "just what i needed," omitting "i don't mind you coming here, wasting all my time."

kentucky fried chicken has adopted "sweet home alabama." maybe they think it's close enough.

09-28-2005, 10:44 AM	#2 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	I love RHH. Of course, who can forget Reagan using "Born in the USA" as his campaign theme song. Did he bother listening to the lyrics of that one? __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

09-28-2005, 11:13 AM	#6 (permalink)
Redlemon Devoted Donor Location: New England	Oh, if we're going to get into politics... how about George W. Bush using "Cat in the Cradle", or (I think) the mayor of Allentown honoring Billy Joel for writing Allentown? __________________ I can't read your signature. Sorry.

09-29-2005, 11:08 AM	#10 (permalink)
Martian Young Crumudgeon Location: Canada	I don't watch enough tv to add to the list, but I remember the first time I saw the Royal Caribbean Cruise ads with Iggy Pop in the background, that amused me to no end. __________________ I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said - Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

09-29-2005, 05:08 PM	#12 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	My current head-basher is the O'Jays' Love Train for Coors Light. That's a sin. __________________ it's quiet in here

09-29-2005, 07:32 PM	#13 (permalink)
sadistikdreams lonely rolling star Location: Seattle.	I think the execs just listen to the hook and/or the chorus. If is sounds... related, they'll use it. __________________ "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." -Lin Yutang hearts, by d.a.

09-28-2005, 10:57 AM	#5 (permalink)
El Pollo Insane Location: Austin, TX	There was a car commercial that used Bohemian Like You by the Dandy Warhols. The commercial just used the first line "You've got a great car" but omitted the second line "Yeah, what's wrong with it today?"

09-28-2005, 11:19 AM	#7 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	hehe good thread Red (w00t I'm a poet and didn't know it!) I can't think of any right now.. I need to start writing them down as there are several I see each night.

09-29-2005, 09:29 PM	#14 (permalink)
trickyy ►	i do think trying it in the ear is worth a shot, let's go on a cruise... how about the stones Windows 95 campaign Start It Up was played, gracefully omitting the "you make a grown man cry" lines (wow, i got sick of that song.)

09-30-2005, 06:15 AM	#15 (permalink)
pan6467 Lennonite Priest Location: Mansfield, Ohio USA	H-P using the KINKS "Picture Book", kind of falls into this I guess. Although it's a great song and the comercial is cool as hell, the song is about taking pornographic pictures of loved ones and masturbating to them when you are old. At least that was what I always was told, and the lyrics can lend themselves that way. __________________ I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

09-30-2005, 06:29 AM	#16 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	Ooh, how about Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started" for the NBA playoffs a year (or two) back? Yeah, good work. Let's get retarded in here, let's get stoned, let's get stupid. __________________ it's quiet in here

09-30-2005, 06:34 AM	#17 (permalink)
Glory's Sun Registered User	Didn't Marilyn Manson do a promo for football or something?? I'm still wondering if it was premier of the GFL or something (Goth Football League)

09-30-2005, 08:20 PM	#18 (permalink)
trickyy ►	kadath - hell bent? black eyed peas - not that they are master songwirters, but are they willing to change any lyric for any reason? (don't funk -> don't mess) back to the topic with a couple obvious ones... fortunate son has been used in patriotic wrangler ads pink moon (suicide?) for volkswagon

10-01-2005, 02:41 AM	#19 (permalink)
Strange Famous follower of the child's crusade?	worst taste ever would be a car advert with the song "take my breath away" playing in an ad break during a documentary on the Hillsborough Disaster (if youre not familiar with that, police actions directly caused the death by suffocation and crushing of around 100 soccer fans at Hillsborough Soccer Stadium - the police basically forced too many people into a stand causing many people to be trampled and crushed to death. The Manic Street Preachers song South Yorkshire Mass Murder talks about the role of the South Yorkshire Police - "take my breath away" rather tasteless for obvious reasons) __________________ "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered." The Gospel of Thomas

10-02-2005, 08:49 AM	#20 (permalink)
Derwood Who You Crappin? Location: Everywhere and Nowhere	bands like Modest Mouse, Jet and Polyphonic Spree all got serious exposure from ads __________________ "You can't shoot a country until it becomes a democracy." - Willravel

10-03-2005, 01:53 PM	#22 (permalink)
Strange Famous follower of the child's crusade?	the idea of a mass production car company using the reference "Brave New World" in an advert just takes irony that one step too far, really. __________________ "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered." The Gospel of Thomas

10-10-2005, 10:04 PM	#23 (permalink)
trickyy ►	m.i.a.'s song that mentions a bmw is used in a honda commercial! i think the song is galang

10-12-2005, 04:17 PM	#24 (permalink)
rev_skarekroe Insane Location: Parts Unknown	Psychic TV's "Roman P." with its uplifting chorus ("Are you free? Are you really free? Are you really really really really really free") was used in a Volkswagen commercial in the '90s. The song is about Roman Polanski and the rape that caused him to flee America, and also includes lines about Sharon Tate's murder by the Manson Family. __________________ "If I could have one wish, as in the fairy tales, I would unmake my past, and rise like Lazarus and stand in sunlight and banish all the dark." D. Tibet

10-18-2005, 05:56 AM	#25 (permalink)
Catdaddy33 Psycho Location: TN	One that sticks out to me wasn't a song used but the title of the song. Back when Nirvana was breaking out with "Smells Like Teen Spirit". The Teen Spirit deodorant folks had commercials that had teen girls saying shit like "Do you know what smells like teen spirit?". Then they realized that the song was a complete slam on them and they pulled it.

10-18-2005, 01:42 PM	#26 (permalink)
anleja disconnected Location: ignoreland	"Dust in the Wind" by Kansas is in a Subaru ad: "All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see... don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky, it slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy..." What kind of an ad jingle is THAT?! Also, the Bob Dylan Victoria's Secret commericals to his song "Lovesick" ... it gave my brain weird sensations as I saw the beautiful women moving their bodies as Bob Dylan stared at me.

10-20-2005, 07:29 AM	#27 (permalink)
ngdawg peekaboo Location: on the back, bitch	HP using the Cure's Picture of You. I downloaded that song from hearing it on the commercial, then realized this is NOT a happy song. __________________ Don't blame me. I didn't vote for either of'em.

10-24-2005, 07:42 PM	#29 (permalink)
Tophat665 Minion of the scaléd ones Location: Northeast Jesusland	I think it was a Huyndai commercial that used Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick. "Your Sperm's in the gutter, your love's in the sink." I think I will sit this one out, as a matter of fact. // drives a Huyndai Phillips, using the Beatles - Getting Better All the Time and cutting it at the very last beat before John says "Can't get no worse." They might as well have not bothered, I hear it anyway. __________________ Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

12-31-2005, 04:50 PM	#30 (permalink)
trickyy ►	circuit city uses the cars' "just what i needed," omitting "i don't mind you coming here, wasting all my time." kentucky fried chicken has adopted "sweet home alabama." maybe they think it's close enough.