Music In Adverts

A few weeks ago I talked about the John Lewis commercial currently doing the rounds, part of what makes this advert so good is the music in it (Billy Joel’s “Always A Woman”, performed by Fyfe Dangerfield), which got me thinking about music in adverts.

I owe a shameful amount of my musical tastes to advertisers and the music they've chosen to put in adverts. Some stuff I’d likely have discovered anyway- such as Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower”, which was used on a car advert a few years ago or Nina Simone, who’s song “Sinnerman” featured in the Renault Clio Adverts slightly more recently (along with the utterly gorgeous Annelise Hesme).



And then there are other songs that I probably would never have heard had they not been put in an advert, such as The Flaming Lips’ “Silver Trembling Hands” recently featured on a Nokia advert or Martin Grech’s “Open Heart Zoo”, featured on a Lexus advert years ago- I bought his album purely on the strength of the 30 seconds of the song appeared in the advert.



Part of the reason I love the songs mentioned above is because of the associations I have already formed because of the adverts- Open Heart Zoo, several years later, still makes me think of abandoned streets- and I typically listen to it when I’m walking home after a night out, and Silver Trembling Hands puts me in the mindset of being at a crowded gig with a really good atmosphere, so usually goes on before I go out drinking and clubbing. Sinnerman just makes me want to argue about Britain being better than France with a stunningly attractive French lady.

Ok, so that last case may not be true, but the first two are, and it is a testament to the skill of the advert’s producers that they’ve managed to pick up the overall tone of the song well enough to place imagery with it that isn’t too dissonant, whilst still selling their product.

To illustrate this point, check out the John Lewis video mentioned above, with a subtly altered soundtrack

Check back later this week, for when adverts in music goes catastropically wrong, and I'm not just talking about Calgon and that infernal jingle of theirs.