For a new 2010 Toyota Prius commercial, Toyota commissioned the services of a distinct vocal harmony on the song "Let Your Love Flow" to complement the sunny visuals created for their popular auto:
For this 3rd generation Toyota Prius commercial, singer Petra Haden sings an a capella cover version of "Let Your Love Flow" (originally by The Bellamy Brothers), singing all the parts of the song herself, with no instruments. Toyota has produced a series of commercials all featuring vocals by Haden, including Prius ads called "Harmony", "MPG", and "Solar". Each TV spot highlights different aspects of the Toyota Prius.
Originally by 1980s German synthpop musician Peter Schilling, "Major Tom (Coming Home)" is one of several songs referencing the fictional astronaut Major Tom character created by David Bowie. Major Tom first appeared in the song "Space Oddity" by Bowie. Given that connection to the same Bowie character, it only makes sense that the new Lincoln ad features an "ad song sequel" to the previous 2009 Lincoln MKZ "Liftoff" commercial. That ad uses a cover of "Space Oddity" by artist Cat Power. (Which sadly, like all Cat Power TV commercial cover songs, is not available to the public.)
Apart from their new cover song in the Lincoln TV spot, the group Shiny Toy Guns are no strangers to TV commercial ad music -- their song "Le Disko" was featured in a Motorola Motorola RAZR 2 commercial.
In a move that more companies are finally starting to embrace, Lincoln has posted the song "Major Tom (Coming Home)" as a free download on their official website. It is good to see an American automaker doing something right.
Update: Well it looks like we spoke too soon. Lincoln has removed the free song download from their site. It must have been the "American automaker doing something right" comment that jinxed it. According to a rep for Ford on Twitter: Our initial agreement w/ Shiny Toy Guns was 30K downloads. They went fast once we hit twitter, facebook. Sorry could not get more
Most television viewers do not normally associate local TV commercials with well produced ad music. But leave it to a local Austin Texas commercial to raise the bar on local TV ads with an infectious song called "Take Me to Reid's".
The TV commercial for Austin Texas based Reid's Cleaners and Laundry is an interesting mix of some old and new ideas for television advertising: The all but extinct ad jingle combined with the very modern trend of an indie female singer providing the vocals for the commercial's catchy song.
The "Reid's cleaner girl" singing and performing in the TV ad is Austin singer Erin Ivey, also known as "Austin's urban folk sweetheart". For Ivey, the commercial represents an effective way to reach new audiences, especially in the competitive Austin indie music scene. Erin Ivey, on the reaction to her Reid's Cleaners commercial:
The impact so far has been surprising. I've been invited on television and radio programs to talk about the commercial and then been able to perform or promote my own music to their audiences. Austin is an interesting town for musicians. There's great talent totally saturating a market that is growing and changing all the time. So, I'm excited about any boost in exposure that leads people to the music. Ultimately, that's my focus: creating and performing my own music.
Ivey announced on her blog: "I sold my soul to the sultans of clean." This tongue-in-cheek post prompted us to ask her how she felt about musicians performing in TV commercials and the antiquated idea that ad music is "selling out":
Great music makes anything better, in any medium, and co-branding introduces musicians to a wider range of possible fans than they might otherwise reach. I am all for making a living in creative work, but it is imperative that the musicians are fairly compensated and agree with the ideals of the company being promoted. Hopefully musicians are in a position to make wise choices that way, but when bills are due and Dinosaur Corp. is at the door with a check, that's a tough decision that each person has to make on their own.
The "Take Me to Reid's" song was written by songwriter (and Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at University of Texas at Austin) Dr. John Mills. "I've been pretty amazed at the amount of attention the Reid's spot has gathered, which is always what you aim for when writing ad music, of course," said Mills. "It's a little odd, but nice to overhear strangers talking about it, or even humming it."
The Reid's Cleaners TV ad campaign was created by the Lee Tilford Agency. According to Jamie Tilford, the reaction to the commercial has been extremely positive and Reid's has seen a "hugh increase in business" thanks to the spot. The Reid's commercial is the first in a series of commercials featuring Ivey, which promises to keep the TV jingle fresh in the minds of Austin viewers.
You can hear more of Erin Ivey on her latest release Sweet Little E.P..
As if you did not already know, "The Big Game" (aka Super Bowl XLIII aka Super Bowl 43) is Sunday on NBC.
Adland has an on-going rundown of all of the 2009 Super Bowl commercials scheduled to run during the NFL's big game. Look for TV commercials during the game from Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Cash4Gold.com Careerbuilder.com, and as always, GoDaddy.com.
There will be two ads in 3D (using 3D glasses NBC wants you to hold onto for the 3D episode of the series Chuck on the following night), one for Pepsi's SoBe Lifewater and the other a trailer for the Dreamworks animated film Monsters vs. Aliens.
Can't wait until Sunday? Adweek has posted several videos of the 2009 Superbowl commercials available to view online. Although, some of the Super Bowl ad videos are only "teasers" and are not the full television commercials. Why an advertiser thinks showing you 7 seconds of a 30 second commercial is an effective promotion for their million dollar ad buy is beyond us.
You can follow the football game online through various social media sites and blogs: The NFL has it's own Super Bowl on Twitter. Discuss the Super Bowl ads via your own Twitter feed or visit The Consumerist live-blogging the TV ads during the game.
View the Super Bowl TV commercials online during and after the game: AOL FanHouse, YouTube
8. Welcome to The Show
This year's "pop folk female singer-songwriter makes the big time via commercials" would be Australian singer Lenka (aka Lenka Kripac). Her song, "The Show", first premiered in an Old Navy commercial, later in an Ugly Betty commercial for ABC, and then followed by a trailer for the Renée Zellweger movie New in Town. Not bad for a former children's television show host. Lenka and her music are no strangers to television -- her songs have previously been featured in shows like 90210 and Grey's Anatomy.
7. Studio Work
In recent years, TV commercials have been using well-known pop songs, breaking new artists, or even hiring popular musicians to perform licensed ad music. (Which reminds us of our yearly requirement to mention the reigning ad-cover queen Cat Power.) All of this comes at the expense of music created exclusively for commercials and other ad songs produced by music studios and producers. But in 2008 there was a slight shift back towards agency produced music. A few examples: Ad music gurus Wojahn Bros Music received a surprising amount of attention for their tongue-in-cheek "Oh No You Didn't" song for the Mercenaries 2 video game commercial and the musical nursery rhyme "Follow Me" for a Shaun White Snowboarding game ad. Commercials for the video game Pure featured "Fragments of Time" by Stuart Cary Hunter, a licensed track from APM Music. Blurring the lines between a record label, indie musicians, and ad music agency, Black Iris scored several TV spots including Cadillac, Miller Lite, and We Can Solve It. Kael Aiden, of the band Faded Paper Figures, composed the song "Where You Belong" (available as a free download from music studio Robot Repair) for the Lexus RX350 "Pebble Beach" commercial.
6. A New Enterprise
Diretor J.J. Abrams is "re-imagining" the Star Trek franchise for his upcoming Star Trek XI film. Something else that is being re-imagined is the music in the Star Trek movie trailer. The original music is called "War Begins", from the Children of Dune miniseries score by film composer Brian Tyler. The Star Trek trailer uses a new arrangement of the "War Begins" track, which is titled "Down with the Enterprise". This new extension of the Dune track was created by composer Nick Phoenix of the trailer music company Two Steps From Hell. Nick Phoenix writes: I was hired to continue 'War Begins' where it left off. It doesn't get big and exciting enough for a trailer and it's a bit short. The additional music I wrote is now property of ABC and is being called a new arrangement of 'War Begins'.
4. Striking Gold
This year's Overseer Overexposed Award goes to singer Santogold (aka Santi White). Her self-titled debut album Santogold (and album singles "Creator" and "L.E.S. Artistes") have appeared on several year-end top music lists, including top singles and albums of the year in both Spin and Rolling Stone magazines. In 2008, Santogold's music received exposure in several TV commercials, including ads for Converse, Budweiser, Ford Flex, and VO5. She even appeared in the Converse commercial along with Pharrell Williams and Julian Casablancas. It should come as no surprise that two thirds of Santogold's album has already been licensed for use in advertising. She seems to be okay with that arrangement, even if some others are not.
2. Making Progress
An interesting Audi A4 commercial called "Living Room" premiered during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The spot shows a time lapse transformation of a room ending with an Audi car in the driveway along with the tag line "Progress is Beautiful". The piano track from the ad is called "Notes on Progress". Composed by Nate Morgan of ad agency EliasArts, the song was a popular topic in our forums. The commercial was part of the Audi Truth in Engineering campaign. Elias Arts Creative Director Dave Gold: For ‘Living Room,’ our goal was to combine orchestral instrumentation along with contemporary rhythms and voices, to create an organic/classical musical feel. We wanted to mirror, through music, the visuals, which were a depiction of standard luxury, which slowly evolves into a more contemporary, modern luxury. Starting with just piano and strings, portraying an older luxury feel, we expanded the music with more traditional elements, mixing, recording and filtering them, to ultimately deliver a more than traditional, yet still contemporary/modern feel -- a musical evolution of luxury.
1. Flying High
In 2008 the trailer for the "stoner action comedy" Pineapple Express featured a distinctive musical hook courtesy of British singer-songwriter M.I.A. (aka Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam -- our third "aka" stage name in this year's list). Her song "Paper Planes" did not receive much attention until it appeared in Pineapple Express spots and later in the movie soundtracks for Hancock and Slumdog Millionare. The track samples the Clash song "Straight to Hell" for the musical hook. (And to keep the sample family tree going, "Paper Planes" was later sampled in "Swagga Like Us" by T.I. and Jay-Z.) All of the attention from Hollywood eventually led to "Paper Planes" being nominated for a Grammy award for Record of the Year. "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. may be the first example of a pop song gaining popularity and a Grammy award nomintation as a direct result of it first appearing in an ad.
