I was just listening to the song It Can Happen by Yes. I think it would make good background music for a TV commercial for insurance. The visual would be a bunch of accidents and natural disasters as the song plays in the background.
Here’s the chorus:
I also thought How do I Get You Alone? by Heart would be good for some kind of bank or mortgage lender. As in… “How Do I Get You A Loan?”
I’ve long thought that Yo La Tengo’s “Moby Octopad” (which is instrumental aside from some Burt Bacharach-sampled vocalise – a very nice, and hip, touch) would make a great backing track for a sports car commercial, in which the car is cruising along a picturesque highway like the PCH. The song has a terrific baseline and sinuous rhythm, with the bass and drums captured tight and very sharp in the mix, with the minimalist guitar chords chiming in like bells, mixed in like synth washes. Very sexy number!
The ascending keyboard arpeggios near the end of the song would make a good musical “question mark” (as in, so why don’t you?) to back any narrated or subtitled boilerplate about financing, a special limited-time sales offer, etc.
I’ve posted this before.
Archival footage of Japanese Zeroes in flight.
Graphic: On December 7th, 1941, Mitsubishi surprised America.
Footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Graphic: This year, Mitsubishi surprises America again.
Montage of a new Mitsubishi sporty car being put through its paces.
Graphic: Typical carmaker end graphic.
Johnny L.A.'s suggestion reminds me of reminds me of ad exec Jerry Della Femina’s joking suggestion for a slogan from a Japanese company (which he also used as the name of his book of humorous anecdotes about the ad biz): “From those wonderful folks who brought you Pearl Harbor.”
My more serious ad suggestion: a campaign for Ritz crackers with a song about what you can top them with, “Put It On A Ritz” (sung, of course, to the tune of Irving Berlin’s Puttin’ On The Ritz).
Hi. Here’s why our product is good and why you should buy it. Thank you.