Really, Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” in an SUV ad?
I’m not a rabid SUV hater, but you don’t need to be one to see that a song parodying conspicuous consumption wouldn’t be the best choice to push Lincoln Navigators and Aviators.
Especially with these lyrics:
“my belly is getting bigger
big time
and my bank account
big time
look at my circumstance
big time
and the bulge in my big big big big big big big”
Safe to say, they left that part out. 
Maybe my thread titles just suck.
The ad agency (whoever they are) is probably aware of how irony-challenged the general public is; most people think that Born In the USA by Bruce Springsteen is a chest-thumping jingoistic anthem and that The Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades) by Timbuk 3 is an optimistic song about a lucrative future. I suppose soon we’ll be hearing Radio, Radio by Elvis Costello in ads for car stereos.
To paraphrase Nirvana
We are the ones
We like all their pretty songs
and we like to sing along…
…but we know not what it means
I think half the time they do it on purpose just to get those who notice to remember the commercial - didn’t Mercedes actually end up using Janis Joplin’s song once?
I still say the big winner so far is Target, for their use of Devo’s Beautiful World.
The HP digital camera commercial with The Cure playing Pictures of You always cracks me up, because the song is about how all he has left is pictures because they broke up, etc. It’s actually quite a sad song but HP seem oblivious. All they care about is the words “pictures of you.” Probably the same ad agency…
LOL!
Think Vauxhall in the UK used Sledgehammer (That was one of his song titles wasn’t it?) in the 80’s for an ad demonstrating the crash worthiness of their mid sized saloon car. Were they being unintentionally ironic with that choice?
of course the ad people always realize this, but they know that people that don’t know won’t care… and people that do know will go on for weeks about how funny that is.
I mean I think I have mentioned how funny I think the ads with the flameing lips “do you realize” song is. every ad uses it as a normal “life is wonderful” sort of song, and it is at its heart, but the “do you realize” is “do you realize everyone you know will someday die”
I still think the worst song choice for a commercial ever was when McDonald’s used “New Slang” by The Shins. You can’t go wrong with lyrics like:
and
Not to mention that the entire song itself is pretty darn depressing.
*Dirt in my fries! Blood in my buns!
Dirt in my fries! Blood in my buns!
It still ain’t enough without spunk in my cheese –
Give me snot in my shake else I’m goin’ to Wendy’s.*
Believe me, by the time the commercial is ready to be aired, everyone involved with it has heard the song half a million times. We know what the songs mean.
Just saw the commercial that has been bugging me since I first read this post. I couldn’t recall exactly what it was.
Universal Orlando Resort has an ad using Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.” I think it’s kind of funny that they use a song about a kid’s parents being on drugs to sell a vacation spot.
"Whatever happened to all this season’s
Losers of the year
Every time I got to thinking
Where’d they disappear
Then I woke up, Mom and Dad
Are rolling on the couch
Rolling numbers, rock and rolling
Got my Kiss records out
Mommy’s allright, Daddy’s allright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don’t give yourself away"
In the commercial they just use the “surrender, surrender
But don’t give yourself away” part.