Is anyone else annoyed by the recycling of music that goes on in commercials? Maybe I'm just attuned to it because of years of piano, violin, and voice lessons, (I feel your pain, Bach-us) but different commercials using the same or veerrrry similar refrains bother me!

Remember the Joe Boxer commercial with the hilariously cute and dorky black guy dancing around like a maniac? Remember that kooky, fast-paced, revving-up music with the little distant ooo-ooos in it? I have heard that same music, or a derivative of it in, like, 3 other commercials today alone. (Downey commercial with the kid running back and forth between the ocean and mommy with the big, yummy-smelling towel being one of them.)

Same thing goes for commercials for movies that use the same soundtrack music over and over again (and then they DON'T use it in the actual films). I swear I have heard the soundtrack music from Last of the Mohicans and Legends of the Fall and Field of Dreams hundreds of times, attached to all kinds of different movies recently.

Arrrgh!

Fucking Word. I love the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack and it gets used for tons of trailers, especially westerns. I'm looking a you, The Missing.This drives me crazy. BTW, the Legends of the Fall trailer used music from Last of the Mohicans.

Speaking of that guy, I caught a glimpse of one of those small interviews they sometimes use as filler to close 20/20 or Primetime (one of the ABC shows, I know that much). I think the man had some sort of personal tragedy or something, but they still used the footage of him dorkily dancing around in between his interview, lol.

Of course, I didn't catch the whole thing, so I don't know what his problem was, so if anyone else caught this, please let me know what this interview was about!

Movie trailers are always prepared well in advance of the score, so short of composing music just for the trailer, they really have no choice but to use other music. You should feel free to be driven crazy by it, though, if that would give you any sense of satisfaction.

Only because I listened to Urban Hymns today...the anti-drug ads don't work, they just make you worse..../loved the Verve

I heard the Stargate music in movie ads for years after it came out.

You guys are too funny with the whole "gotta" thing.

This thread? Is killing me.

How 'bout like a funeral parlor ad "Gotta DIE!"

J. Herbert and Sons ... You gotta die ... J. Herbert and Sons ... you gotta die ... you gotta diediediediediediediedie! Yeah!

You're kidding me. Aaaaaaargh!

Heh.



That makes sense, I guess. And my ranting does give me a lovely, warm feeling of satisfaction. But I always wondered if I was the only person in the world who got ticked off. I mean, I so strongly associate the soundtrack of a movie with THAT movie. It's just jarring to hear it attached to some totally different flick. I guess now I know that I'm not the only one! Cool!






That is so wrong! Poor dorkily dancing guy! I'd like to know what's up with him too.

I don't even know what it's shilling and I've only seen it once, but there is a commercial of a Jewish service and a girl is brought up to the lectern to do the canting, or chanting (I'm not Jewish, so I dunno). Well, she starts in with the most revolting pop-diva R&B singing and I was just so annoyed by it. I admit I have a bias against that kind of unnecessary vocal dynamics, but I thought the rabbi should've stopped her in the middle and said, "Know what? This isn't American Idol, this isn't your audition, vanity isn't what these words are about and you're insulting us by performing them that way."

Some kind of commercial for MTV, I think it's about how MTV has affected people or some crap.

The Brave Heart theme is used a lot too. It's a nice song, but it really annoys me that it's been used for so many trailers.

It's not just classical music or soundtrack music. It happens alot and I don't understand if it's because these songs' rights are not closely guarded, or the advertisers think we won't remember all the other ads once this new one wipes our memories, or that we love the song SO much we'll automatically love the ad, or a combination. I usually have lots of examples, but the only one off the top of my head right now is "Groove me Baby"...that's used often for a wide variety of products.

Tornado25, MLK's speech/image has been used in a YMCA ad. Maybe that's what you were thinking of?


I thought the same thing, and definitely thought some people were taking the destruction of laundry a bit too seriously! None of that actually happened, V8 does not have magical race/gender switching powers, it was just to show how the woman FELT upon drinking the V8. It's still lame, but don't fault Savion!

ACK! I just heard that damn ooo-ooo Joe Boxer song on ANOTHER commercial! For Pur water filters.

It's drrrrriiiiivvvvviiing me inSANE!

I've caught this once. I thought it was for MTV but I missed the last couple of seconds. She's supposed to be chanting the blessing before the Torah is read. I thought the shell-shocked looks on everyone's faces were hilarious. Also, they really did have her doing the actual Torah blessing so they get points for authenticity.

Sorry, sorry, when I'm back at work tomorrow I'll post date and time on the Superbowl commercials. Didn't get a chance to check this thread during the day.

They're using it again - not just snippets, but the entire theme, in the trailer for "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow".

The first few times I heard "Rosie the Riveter" in ads for the Rosie project, it was fun, but the zillionth?

My first double-post. Bad browser

<deep breaths> Thanks for understanding.

I hear a lot of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in trailers. I adore that movie, but after repeated use the music ceases to be compelling and shows its true, vapid self.

I'm investigating what companies will lose my business if I hear that candy bar ad again. I have a long memory and an inability to compartmentalize. I'm still angry because "Gentlemen prefer Hanes," after all. Why should I care that gentlemen prefer them? Unless the gentlemen are wearing them it's none of their damn business.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of sending a letter to the company that includes the full text of the music in the ad. Picture this: Poor customer relations grunt opens a letter, pulls out several pages, scratches head and wonders, "What's 'smite' mean?"

I find it interesting that there is a new (yummy) flavor of Diet Coke on the market, and I have yet to see a single ad for it. It's Lime this time. After being inundated with Lemon and especially Vanilla Coke ads, I expected an onslaught. Though I suppose it may yet happen.

You're talking about the new lime right? I'm very excited about that...but something tells me we'll see a big ad this Sunday- the D-Day for all advertising.

If you mean Super Bowl Sunday, that's not next Sunday, but the Sunday after next, February 1.

Oops....you're right. But still- I think they'll probably do a spot on Super Bowl Sunday, rather than run ads this close to it. I think they want to generate buzz...

Oh, wow, Lime Diet Coke? When I was a kid in the '70s, we lived for a couple years in this very timewarp town (the phone numbers had 5 digits) that had a drug store with an actual soda fountain. I lived for the lime cokes, so much better than cherry. Anyway, on topic, I haven't seen Lime Diet Coke in the stores here (NJ) yet, so it may be in a test market phase.

Also, lately I keep seeing the Dell kidnap-the-tech-guy commercial. It freaks me out that the minivan-driving hostage-taking dad appears to be the same guy who plays the evil drug lord Salazar (Felipe Hartmano) on 24. Am I wrong? I'm mostly going by the weirdly pale eyebrows.

naugastyle--possibly. I know this sounds weird, but I distinctly remember MLK was used for some kind of "good" ad, but I cannot remember what it was for. Not the ad's fault--it was several years ago. Anyway, I don't think families of people like MLK should use images/speeches/etc for anything but PSAs.

Lime Diet Coke isn't available in Massachusetts either. Has anyone else seen the new 8 ounce cans of soda yet in the stores? I would need to drink two of them in order to quench my thirst.

Lime Diet Coke is in Columbus, Ohio. I just had one the other night -- it was okay, but ... unusual. I do think it's cool that Coke comes in so many flavors; Original, Cherry, Vanilla, Lemon, and Lime. They badly need to do a Chocolate version. Yum!

Columbus is a huge test market, though, so given the distinct lack of any commercials/print ads, I imagine it is still testing.

I love chocolate cokes from the local soda fountain, but I think if they actually did them, they'd probably taste like eight shades of ass, but that's JMHO.

Check out the Coca-Cola website for a quick news release. It seems like it's still being introduced to the market...sort of like Crest did with their new Whitening Expressions line months before it debuted at market. At my school, we got lots of samples months before I could buy the Citrus Breeze flavor, which is now my favorite toothpaste, only narrowing beating out the fennel Tom's of Maine. Anyhow....

Dane, if you ever get to Atlanta, you should check out the Coca Cola Museum. I went through it about 6 years ago, and it was great. Along with history kinda stuff, there was an area you could view all the Coke tv ads ever. (And, yes, they even mention New Coke.) But the best was the tasting room: little cups and a huge room full of dispensers. The cool part was that they had all the sodas Coke sells worldwide available to sample. There were all kinds of unusual flavors, most yummy. Many fruit flavored sodas -- I wish they would do limited runs of some of the tastier berry flavors. A few flavors were not so yummy. The Italian bitters soda? Tasted like evil. And, of course, to prevent people from taking up residence in the area, the restrooms are past the tasting room, and you can't go back. But, overall, really fun. (Except for the Italian soda. I still get bad dreams about it.)

I'm in Ohio too, but I never would have thought Toledo was special enough to be a test market. Plus I heard about it on a quasi-nationwide morning show, so I thought it was coming out everywhere. As for chocolate Diet Coke, now you're talking!

Not true: I bought a six-pack of Diet Coke with Lime at the Shaws in Allston just last night...ironically, in the 8-ounce cans!

I prefer the 8-ounce cans. I grew up on the 7.5 oz bottled Coke -- which they also sell here, happily enough -- and I think that's exactly as much Coke as I want at any one time. The 20-oz always goes warm and flat before I can finish it!

Miki, I think the margin of horror on mass-produced chocolate Coke could be huge ... but God help me, it still sounds good! Speaking of Whitening Expressions, I tried to replace my Cinnamon Crest this weekend, and 2 different stores were completely out of all Whitening Expressions! I will be very upset if I can't get my cinnamon anymore. I did find one tiny little Citrus "bottle" so I got that ... cause I bought the orange (B)listerine on the strength of that commercial (see! topic!) and orange toothpaste has to taste better with orange listerine than cinnamon. *shudder*

Incidentally, said commercial is correct, the orange is milder. I can get to about 19 seconds before my mouth catches fire with the orange versus 7 seconds with the other flavors.

Shelwood, if I'm ever in Atlanta, I'm there! But ... bitters? Jaysus.

There are several different bitters-flavored Italian sodas -- you can buy the San Pellegrino version at any store with a foreign foods section, next to the Limoniata and Aranciata.

It's very much an acquired taste, like Moxie without the root beer undertone. And I kinda like Moxie.

Topic: I'm sad that Chapelle's Show starts tomorrow, just because I still haven't gotten sick of "mm-MMM, bitch!"

I have the Aqua Fresh Cinammon toothpaste and the orange flavored Listerine. And it tastes just fine.

Oh, about the MTV commercial with the girl going all Christina Aguilera on the Torah. Am I the only one that was amused by that? Oh, I was? Oh, OK. I'll be on my way to hell now.

Save me a seat if you get there first, Trice.

What is the point of the Direct TV ads with the actors over-dramatically reading sad, pathetically childish fan letters from "actual" consumers?

1) If you subscribe to Direct TV, they will make fun of you on national TV?

2) People who subscribe to Direct TV are dumb, silly, and bad writers?

Woo hoo! Sign me up for that!

What were they thinking?

The Sprint ad with the hair-braiding girl...Shouldn't she have been in bed at 9:00 when the old cheap phone time started?

The Snickers ad with "how 'bout them Cowboys?!" The black guy who charges the Snickers-deficient guy is some football player for a team other than the Cowboys, I'm guessing?

Woo-hoo! I finally saw Greg-don't-sneeze-on-me-Brady. Very surreal.

Anybody else seen the ads for the new Snickers Marathon?

It's Michael Strahan from the NY Giants. And I love, Love, LOVE! that commercial. 'Cause I'm from Houston, and most of the folks that I know down here hate the Cowboys. :o)

I'm really annoyed by the car ad (which car?) with the family going to the beach and the little girl sees all her neighbors in suits & ties getting into their cars. At the end she asks, "Daddy, today's Saturday, isn't it?"

There are several things that bug me, but mostly that even if everyone has to work on Saturday, wouldn't they dress casually and not in suits & ties? Plus, what's the point of the ad anyway? That if you buy a more expensive car you have to work on Saturday to pay for it? The whole damn family just seems a little too smug for my liking.

Also, the kid's a little too old to be confused about days of the week....doesn't she realize she's not in school so it must be a weekend?

The Snickers Marathon ad, even though it shouldn't, makes me laugh. First because when they show all the pain words written on exercise equipment, I expect it to be for Advi or something, and then because of the look on the guy's face when he bites into generic-overly-chewy-energy-bar. I am curious, though, how the Marathon compares nutritionally to Clif or Powerbars, though.

I saw what I assume to be the winner of the MoveOn.org anti-Bush ad contest on tv last night. I didn't know it was being aired yet- has anyone heard if they managed to get it past the CBS censors for Super Bowl airing yet? Last I heard there were difficulties. Anyway, the commercial is very effective, showing children (about 8 y.o.) doing adult jobs. Especially disturbing is the little boy heaving a trash bag into the back of the garbage truck. Then a message comes on to the effect of, "They'll be the ones paying off the ginormous deficit caused by Bush". I know someone posted the links to the ads upthread, worth watching, imo.

ETA: charlieboo, maybe it's summer so she has no school? But I agree, they are smug and annoying.

From www.superbowl-ads.com:



ETA: this is on CBS.

I'm in SE Michigan, I picked up two bottles of Diet Coke w/Lime at the grocery store earlier this week at a 2/$1 price. My first reaction (after tasting) was "yuck," but then it grew on me. Still not sure if I would buy it at full price (I'm a Diet Pepsi girl), but I do think Coke does the "cola variations" better than Pepsi does.

Topic? I think McDonalds has finally found a way to wean me off french fries -- all I have to do is imagine that there are a bunch of guys playing poker, and they've all touched my fries.

Superbowl's Greatest Commercials will be showing on your local CBS station Saturday 1/31 at 9pm EST.

eta: There's an entire website just for Superbowl ads?

They turned down the Moveon.org ad and one from PETA claiming advocacy ads were controvercial and therefore unacceptable.

Lime Coke? Blech. The best cola I ever tasted was Schweppes cola, which only seems to have been marketed in Asia and the Middle East years ago.

Oh god. The commercial for the new DVD Trivial Pursuit is horrifying. It begins with a woman (gag) trying to eat a plate full of worms. I have a phobia of worms. Honestly, looking at them makes me want to throw up. I have no idea what the rest of the commercial is, because I spend the rest of the time with my face covered trying to stop the impuse to puke. And it's the first image you see, so there's no avoiding it, because you can never know when it's coming. It makes me ill. I'm getting sick just thinking about it.

I didn't watch the SOU speech, but I'm glad to know the MoveOn ad made it on there.

I had a bottle of Diet Coke with Lime this morning. It's not bad! Much better than Diet Coke with Lemon, which to me has always tasted like Diet Coke with Lemon Pledge. I still haven't seen any ads for it though.

Someone upthread mentioned commercials for Checkers. I find them oddly fascinating, and sometimes when I'm zipping through the ads on the TiVo, I can't help but stop and watch.

archbrow, AFAIK, those are real letters people wrote to DirecTV. I guess I never saw the ad as making fun of people who wrote the letters. Kind of showing off how much people like DirecTV, they take the time to write. I think the use of the actors is funny--especially Laurence Fishbourne. Hey! Another good use of famous actors. SBC, get a clue!

I saw the MoveOn.org ad, too, last night but can't remember where. I just remember thinking "hey, I thought wasn't going to air until the SuperBowl or something."

Vermicious Knid, Schweppes was marketed in the US...or possibly Canada and I saw because I lived on the border. I still pine for the Duke of Schweppes and was very, very sad when I asked about him last year and no one responded.

scarletine, thanks for the Snickers info. It's a tribute to the ad that I snkickered, as it were, at the ad when I first saw it even though I had no idea who the guy was. Snickers must have the longest winning streak in commercial land--I don't think they've ever had a bad ad sicne the early football Batman ones. And who will ever forget pretty Panda?

I'm in Augusta,GA, so we have Diet Coke with Lime. (You know, Coke Headquarters in Atlanta..)
It's very, very good.
That Trivial Pursuit one, did the Foley artist have to ramp up the gulping sounds? Yuck!

I'm so glad that I'm not alone in my fear of the horrible creature that is the Snuggle fabric softener bear. The new commercial is cree.pee.

I hear sappy music and see a woman diving into a spectacular pool in front of a fabulous building, and then I am tricked into seeing the scary Snuggle bear moving his horrible head in slo mo and leering with those lifeless eyes...

I got cold chills. I thought it was a new perfume ad at first, and then HE was there.

On another note, I want to see the Krystal booty smacking commercial. What a train wreck.

The message of the ad, I think, is a bit muddled. What is the message supposed to be anywya? That under Bush's leadership the economy has created so many new manufacturing jobs that companies are forced to rely on child labor to fill them?

The message of the moveon.org ad is that the money that is being spent by the Bush administration today is going to have to get paid back in the future, when all those who are reaping the benefits today are retired or dead.

That means the next generation is going to have one ginormous defecit to pay down, so they will have to work their little tails off while getting taxed to the max as well.