Top Ad Music of 2007

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Adtunes.com presents the Top Ad Music of 2007. Here is a selection of some the most memorable music trends in advertising from the past year.

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10. Music at Retail
If 2006 was the year of music in cellphone commercials, then 2007 would be the year of ad music for clothing retailers. Big store chains have made use of popular music in TV commercials before, but this year saw a sharp increase. There was a time when you could only count on Gap commercials for catchy songs. Now every major retail company follows the song-centric TV commercial model: Old Navy, Sears, JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, Target, and even Wal-Mart have all featured music in TV spots. The trend was so strong this year that we saw what we believe to be a first: Two competing retailers ran TV commercials at the same time using music from the same band. This "double-vending" honor goes to the music duo The Weepies, who were featured in holiday commercials for JCPenney using the song "All That I Want" (iTunes) and Old Navy with remixed versions of "Stars" (iTunes). We have no idea why these two companies would allow this to happen, but there is probably a music licensing rep at Nettwerk Records smiling.

9. This is Sparta!
It's hard to forget King Leonidas and those sweaty Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae in the 300 movie trailer. The song from the stylized film trailer is "Just Like You Imagined" (iTunes) courtesy of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. Not limited to movie trailers, Reznor's music appears in a wide range of outlets -- everything from the video game Quake to Fox News.

8. Diamonds Are Forever
For over a year, readers have been "discussing" the Cat Power cover of "How Can I Tell You" in the DeBeer's diamond commercial. Some poor souls refuse to believe it is Cat Power singing -- often crediting Regina Spektor instead. It is certainly easy to confuse hipster female vocalists, but when Power's own label confirms she is singing in the ad, what is left to debate? This year DeBeers has a new "A Diamond is Forever" commercial featuring Landon Pigg and his song "Falling in Love at the Coffee Shop". Will the public still be talking about his diamond commercial a year from now? A victim of the Cat Spektor Effect?

7. Beatlemania
It seems like ages ago when Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono disagreed about Nike using the song "Revolution" by The Beatles in a sneaker commercial. Now the two seem to be singing the same (licensing) tune: This past year Ono allowed the song "Real Love" (iTunes) by John Lennon to be used for a JCPenney commercial and McCartney said "Let 'Em In" (iTunes) to Fidelity. The ad music didn't stop with post-Beatles Lennon and McCartney. A cover of The Beatles "Hello, Goodbye" by Sophia Shorai was featured as part of Target's "Goodbuy" ad campaign. "Hello, Goodbye" was also covered by the band Son Volt for an ESPN commercial featuring David Beckham. Beatles music seems to be everywhere, including the stage and screen.

6. Old Punks
It's official: Punk rock is dead. The Buzzcocks lent their song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" (iTunes) for an AARP commercial. A TV ad about birthday parties for the (formerly known as) American Association of Retired Persons seems to be an odd place to hear a pioneering band of the punk scene. "It is a bit ironic," according to Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle. The commercial is part of the AARP's campaign to re-brand the organization as more than a group for senior citizens. "There is a lingering perception that AARP is a retiree organization," said AARP chief brand director Emilio Pardo.

5. Bear Attack
While there are plenty contenders (see our number one pick) for this year's Overseer Overexposed Award, the honor goes to the Swedish band Teddybears. The group is long overdue for a mention on our list -- is there anyone that has not heard the song "Cobrastyle" (iTunes) in a commercial, TV show, or movie during the past three years? The song continues to be an ad music supervisor staple since it first appeared on the band's 2005 album Fresh. More recently, the ubiquitous song has been heard in the NBC series Chuck and The Black Donnellys. It has also appeared in commercials for the TV series Bones and for the films Bee Movie and Harold and Kumar 2. Even an ad featuring firemen responding to a "hot girl" wearing Secret deodorant was given the Cobrastyle touch. You might have also heard the song at a football game. Other songs by the band have appeared in recent episodes of The Bionic Woman and Life.

4. Personal Appearances
Music artists have been spending a lot of time in television commercials lately. The top pitchwoman of the year would be pop star Beyoncé. She would like you to use an American Express credit card when you call on your Samsung cellphone to upgrade DirecTV to HD while wearing Emporio Armani Diamonds perfume and L'Oreal makeup. We found out Gwen Stefani is being followed by floating pictures from a HP printer -- probably drawn to her scent of "L" perfume. Fergie gets her Candie's at Kohl's. Guitarist Slash pops up to play the video game Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. Diane Krall, John Legend, and Elvis Costello discuss music while sitting in a Lexus. And for some reason, a bunny suit wearing John Mayer stalks Alicia Keys for MTV. Ad appearances aren't limited to well-known artists: Indie band Mates of State can be seen performing on-stage in an AT&T commercial.

3. Ends of the Earth
When the Discovery Channel began running commercials for the 11 part miniseries Planet Earth, several viewers took notice of the symphonic music in the ad, which led to an effort to identify the song. The score was eventually found to be a stock music track by APM Music, a production music company. Normally the search would end there. Production music companies do not release their licensed tracks to consumers, as their market is for radio, film, and television producers. But in the case of Planet Earth, consumer demand won out: APM Music took the unusual step of releasing the Planet Earth theme song to the public. "The Time Has Come (theme to Planet Earth)" by Tobias Marberger and Gabriel Shadid is available to download from iTunes. With increased consumer demand (and a little help from music sites like Adtunes), more companies in the advertising industry are waking up to the realization that there is an untapped market for their music.

2. Full Circle
As we mentioned before, this is the year of the retailer when it comes to TV commercial music. Another memorable case in point: The JCPenney Mother's Day commercial called "The Walk". Created by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the spot features a mother and daughter walking hand in hand as the daughter grows up. The cover song is "Only You" performed by Joshua Radin, originally by the group Yaz. The version of the song used in the JCPenney ad is a live track by Radin offered exclusively by iTunes as part of a Live Session EP. This effort to tap emotions via advertising is part of JCPenney's "Every day matters" campaign. It is hard to argue with the results when the right commercial with the right song can bring on the tears.

1. Bitter:Sweet Symphony
We could have easily given the Overseer Overexposed Award to the band Bitter:Sweet. Instead they earned the top spot on this year's list. Anyone who watches Grey's Anatomy and caught ads for the show is more than familiar with the song "Dirty Laundry" (iTunes), which appeared in countless promos across the ABC network. Perhaps you caught "Dirty Laundry" in the recent Victoria's Secret Pajama commercial. Or maybe you heard the band pre-loaded on your new Zune MP3 player that Santa left you. Although The Mating Game album was released in 2006, the band continues to make appearances in soundtracks, trailers and TV commercials, which you can track on their MySpace blog. Are these frequent appearances a case of music licensing "pulling a Moby" or more about survival? "This is truly the new radio for bands these days and we feel very lucky to be part of it. When we wrote these songs, the only thing we cared about was making music that WE actually wanted to listen to and we never thought about how other people would relate to it let alone advertisers." Regardless of where you first heard them, singer Shana Halligan and producer Kiran Shahani mix the right cocktail of trip-hop and jazz hooks for an infectious cinematic sound. Some may prefer the much higher profile Feist for their female indie-pop vocals in TV commercials fix, but we believe Bitter:Sweet deserves recognition as well.

Exclusive download offer of "Dirty Laundry" by Bitter:Sweet

Download the iTunes iMix of the Top Ad Music of 2007

Dirty Laundry
by Bitter:Sweet


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