‘Aint playing for Pepsi/ Aint Playing for Coke’.
In his song ‘This Note’s For You’, the sainted Neil Young objects, in no uncertain terms, to his fellow musicians accepting sponsorship from corporations or allowing their tunes to be used in commercials. Good for you, Neil.
Personally, I’m a little more relaxed about this sort of horse trading. It’s all about context really. BBH’s work for Levis in the early 1980s seemed to transcend advertising, using a mixture of classic music and iconic imagery to produce mini, zeitgeist defining movies. And all those tracks roared up the hit parade as a result – arguably introducing a whole new generation to the work of Percy Sledge, T-Rex, Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. No bad thing. Pot Noodle’s use of the unrivalled ‘Ace of Spades’ was another rock/advert high point, but persuading The Clash to sell jeans is still causing me an ideological crisis twenty odd years later.
No, I’d say the whole thing only really comes unstuck when songs get re-recorded and the lyrics re-written. The current Pringles spot moves me to both tears and tooth gnashing as it replaces the rather lovely bump and grind of Positive Force’s ‘We Got The Funk’ with the sickly and sanitized refrain ‘We Got The Fun’. And this has been going on since Coke rewrote ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’ back in the 70s.
Fortunately for ad agencies, there are literally millions of options when selecting the perfect recording for the soundtrack to their latest, baked bean punting spectacular. Granted, a few tunes are off limits – notably The Beatles catalogue – but on the whole, if your client is prepared to stump up the readies, most songwriters will give the nod for their work to appear in an ad (unless they happen to be Neil Young, of course). There’s been a trend for advertisers to option a track before its release as it tends to cost less before it’s a hit. Those with no budget at all can even opt for music deemed ‘public domain’ – a nursery rhyme, for example.
So, it is somewhat surprising to see the same old numbers used over and over to sell almost
anything you can put a name to. As I write, Blur’s ‘Song 2’ is being used in a motor car
campaign for the umpteenth time, for goodness sake.
Now, what is the second most used track in UK advertising history? Fancy a guess?
It’s ‘What A Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong, showing up in no fewer than nine
spots for outfits as diverse as Microsoft and Redrow Homes.
Hot on its heels you’ll find ‘It Must Be Love’ – interestingly it tends to be the Madness
cover of Labi Siffre’s song which is preferred – tied with Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’
at six ads each.
Next on the list? Depeche Mode’s ‘I Just Can’t Get Enough’ (rather than ‘Personal Jesus’, note) with five commercials from The Sun, Tropicana, T-Mobile and others.
I could go on like this for some time, but for those as nerdy about these things as I am, you can find the full top ten here: http://www.uktvadverts.com
But hang on, if you were paying attention, you’d have noticed I started at number two. Which begs the question: ‘What is the numero uno of the ad music chart?’ Well, it’s something called Special Composition – that is, music specifically written for the ad by a professional songwriter for hire. And if the big beasts of commerce are to avoid offending music purists, they’ll need to stick to those Special Compositions. It would, at least, save Neil Young a lot of sleepless nights.
Magnus Shaw, March 2010
