'Thick as a Brick' used in a Hyundai commercial, NO!!!!!

[Hail Ants]

Just saw it, guess IA needed salmon eggs money...

[Larry Mudd]

Was it an impossibly long commercial?

[RaCha'ar]

No, but it was impossibly stupid.

I just saw this, too. Yet another ridiculously moronic ad that seems to believe that people of all ages, races, shapes and sizes get so whipped up into orgiastic frenzy over the appearance of a new car that they must follow it wherever it goes a la frenzied N*SYNC fans. Yech.

[Cliffy]

Originally posted by Larry Mudd
Was it an impossibly long commercial?

:D

[Telemark]

Grrr, once they started using The Who for Nissan(?), it was all downhill.

Of course, I suppose using The Beatles to sell sneakers was the first and worst blow.

[Green Bean]

Well, the commercial is set in a medieval-looking town. So, perhaps Thick as a Brick is actually based on a medieval tune. Or that's what I tell myself in an effort to keep from going completely insane. :rolleyes:

[KneadToKnow]

Originally posted by Telemark
Of course, I suppose using The Beatles to sell sneakers was the first and worst blow.
Well, you said you want a revolution ...

[ElwoodCuse]

People remember the Revolution ad, but no one seems to remember that Nike later used "Instant Karma!" in another ad campaign.

[RealityChuck]

My wife, who is unfamiliar with Tull, thought it was a Celtic folk song.

And why is this a shock? It's not exactly a new trend.

[John Corrado]

I found it amusing as hell once I realized what song it was.

I mean, it's a song about someone who's an idiot and a fool because they follow all the trends and judge themselves by fashion, right? The song mocks anyone who would buy a car for a commercial. Hilariously ironic, especially when one considers that it's likely the ad execs didn't even bother to consider what the song was *about*. They probably just said, "Hmm. Sounds old Irishey. We can use it!"

I hope Ian is laughing all the way to the bank.

[Stoid]

I nearly screamed.

Goofy note:
Originally posted by John Corrado

I hope Ian is laughing all the way to the bank.

I have a photo of Ian looking very sheepish, holding up a sign that says "Hi, Stoid!", only replace Stoid with my real name, which is almost as unusual.

Acquaintance of mine was dating his drummer and knew what a Tull freak I was. Made him do that for me. Wasn't that sweet, yet stupid?

And I have always adored Tull. At least up through "Songs from the Wood" I think it's called. Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't ever mistake a Tull song for anyone else, or vice versa.

stoid

[Knowed Out]

Everybody sing along with Hyundai.

"Your sperm's in the gutter, your love's in the sink..."

[Gatopescado]

i have to echo what J Corrado sez. i am a Tull fan and love that song. i never really analyzed it too deeply, but i always figured it was kinda dark an not too pleasant subject matter.

these bozos just stick it in whatever and hope no one notices. i cracked up when i saw the ad.

and i ain't gonna buy thier crappy car!

[Maeglin]

Good Lord. That's like using Christmas Song to sell eggnog.

[LordVor]

In fairness to IA, I do remember an interview in which he said that he had no idea that they were using "Locomotive Breath" to sell beer until a friend saw the commercial and told him about it. So it may not be his fault, exactly.

-LV

[Dr. Rieux]

It's bad, very bad.
But it's not nearly as bad as using Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? in those Radio Shack Commercials!

[Biggirl]

You could do a whole thread on inappropriately used songs.


Ronald Reagan's use of Born In The USA
Mercedes Benz using Janis Joplin's Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz A chemical company (I don't remember which one) had This Land Is Your Land featured in one of it's commercials.

If you keep repeating the lie, it becomes the truth.

[slackergirl]

I laughed long and hard the first time I saw that. I'd like to think that there's a subversive ad exec giggling maniacally somewhere, knowing he put one over on the moronic Hyundai suits who liked the pretty flute.

I'd really like to think that.

[Kaitlyn]

Heh. Can't think of the product, but the commercial using "Fortunate Son" is particularly inappropriate. The first thing that jumps into my head when I hear it is "It ain't me", which is hardly what an advertiser would want a consumer to be thinking about their product.

[Larry Mudd]

And so you finally ask yourself just how big you are --
and take your place in a wiser world of bigger motor cars.
And you wonder who to call on.
...
Let me sing of the losers who lie in the street as the last bus goes by.
The pavements ar empty: the gutters run red -- while the fool
toasts his god in the sky.
...
So you ride yourself over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.Uh, where do I sign?

[ElvisL1ves]

Microsoft's use of "Start Me Up" to sell Windows 95:

"You make a grown man cry."

[xanadu]

Originally posted by Number Six
Heh. Can't think of the product, but the commercial using "Fortunate Son" is particularly inappropriate. The first thing that jumps into my head when I hear it is "It ain't me", which is hardly what an advertiser would want a consumer to be thinking about their product.

I'm 80% sure that Levi's is responsible for that one.

Everybody's talking about how all of these ads use the work of great artists like Janis Joplin, Nick Drake, The Stones and The Beatles. But it just shows that the music of today is just not good enough to sell much of anything, I guess.

[Live Better Electrically!]

Other inappropriate uses of songs in ads:

Devo's sarcastic anthem "Beautiful World" was used in the most cluelessly straightforward manner by Target.

Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" has been misinterpreted as a feel-good ditty by several advertisers.

Some commercial (I think for an internet servicer provider) used the hook from David Bowie's "Heroes" not too long ago--it just kept repeating the line "we could be heroes." The rest of the lyric is "just for one day," which made me think the company was some sort of fly-by-night operation.

[Miller]

LBE: You sure that wasn't the Godzilla advertising blitz? The Wallflowers did a cover for the soundtrack, and it featured heavily in the ad campaign.

However, I agree on the Iggy Pop one. "Driving our car is just like doing heroin!" Hell, I'd buy one.

[widdershins]

"I may make you feel,
But I can't make you think."

Too bad they didn't use any of the lyrics.

BTW, inappropriate song in a car ad:

"The Seeker" by The Who, "I won't get to get what I'm after, `til the day I die." Put those lines in the commercial.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally posted by ElvisL1ves
Microsoft's use of "Start Me Up" to sell Windows 95
Co-worker of mine at the time suggested after his first couple of attempts at installing it that they change it to "Losing My Religion."

[Live Better Electrically!]

Miller wrote:
LBE: You sure that wasn't the Godzilla advertising blitz? The Wallflowers did a cover for the soundtrack, and it featured heavily in the ad campaign.

No, it was definitely a commercial for a service. The link below gives a list of '80s songs used in commercial campaigns, and says "Heroes" was used in FTD ads. I'd swear it was an internet or computer-related service that I saw, although it's sometimes hard to tell what is being advertised in today's impressionistic commercials, particularly if you aren't watching closely.

Another really weird one (for a number of reasons) was when The Gap used the guitar intro to the Volcano Suns "White Elephant" in a jeans commercial several years ago.

http://80music.about.com/library/misc/bl_commercial-songs.htm

[LateComer]

Originally posted by Stoid

Acquaintance of mine was dating his drummer

She was dating Doane Perry? Cool

I also thought that it was beautifully ironic to use that particular song to sell cars. I however do not have a problem with Tull selling their songs for commercials. They need all the exposure they can get these days.

Anyone else see the episode of "That 70's Show" that was partially scored by Tull songs, Songs From the Wood, Hunting Girl and Mother Goose among them?

[RiverRunner]

I however do not have a problem with Tull selling their songs for commercials. They need all the exposure they can get these days.

Even if they didn't need the exposure I wouldn't have a problem with it. It's their stuff; they can do what they like with it.

Now, if they had written the song just so they could sell cars with it, that would be different. To me, anyway.

I can see why the ad companies are using music to try to tie a product to a particular feeling, especially among those consumers of a particular age. It can be very effective, but it is amusing when they pick songs that don't mean what they think they mean, like the ones mentioned in this thread.

I imagine next we'll start seeing ads for labor unions with Rush's "The Trees" playing in the background.


RR

[Morbo]

Can anyone confirm that the music in that commercial was originally written by Jethro Tull? I had always thought that flute and guitar part was an old Irish (Celtic?) folk song, even when I first heard Thick as a Brick.

Also, I thought the commercial itself was funny the first time I saw it - all the villagers running out to greet whomever this was, but then he didn't stop, and they all sit there looking dejected.