Subway "Mmm ba da bum"

[mathew5000]

There's a series of ads for Subway that runs on Canadian television, infrequently.

The music has a strong beat, kind of like a march, but it also seems familiar, like it could be a pop standard that I just can't place, done in the style of a march. The lyrics are nonsense words; on Yahoo Answers someone described the lyrics as "mmm ba da bum repeated".

I saw ads in this series three times in June 2009, then once in September, and once yesterday. Always between 10:30pm and 2:00am. There is a 30-second version and at least one 15-second version.

It is not the "Test Zone" ad with cartoon monkeys. The ad series I'm thinking of has no people, no monkeys, or any animals. It is just pictures of sandwich ingredients, in a type of grid formation.

The tagline is something along the lines of "Discover how many ways there are to make your sandwich".

 

[mathew5000]

The lyrics might be written as "mm babadadum bababadadadada". Vaguely like the chorus to Disturbia by Rihanna.

The singing voice is male, kind of computerish, and I can't tell whether it's an a capella group or there is a synthesizer track underneath.

The visual looks sort of like a slot machine, not exactly but there are sandwich ingredients in three columns all moving up and down. And contrary to what I said before, in the latest version of this ad there are a couple of cartoon monkeys though not prominent.

This is really bugging me; why does the music sound so familiar to me when I can't place it?