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Ironic music choices in advertisements

 
 
 
Underseer

Underseer

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http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7aBW/gmc-precision-matters-fastball-featuring-jeremy-affeldt



I keep seeing the above advertisement on American TV. The ad touts the tremendous precision of their high quality luxury SUVs.

The thing is, they use Eminence Front by the Who in this commercial. Eminence Front is about empty and meaningless hedonism among the rich and/or upper middle class who put up a facade of meaning and significance. They're using this song to sell a luxury vehicle? Really?

Anyway, have you noticed any other bizarre or ironic music choices in advertisements?
 
carnival cruise lines using iggy and the stooge's "lust for life" (which is a song about drug use)
kodak using the cure's "pictures of you" for their printers (general what-the-fuckery there)
inevitably, any commercial that uses "o fortuna" for basically anything, considering what THAT song is actually about
 
Underseer said:
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7aBW/gmc-precision-matters-fastball-featuring-jeremy-affeldt



I keep seeing the above advertisement on American TV. The ad touts the tremendous precision of their high quality luxury SUVs.

The thing is, they use Eminence Front by the Who in this commercial. Eminence Front is about empty and meaningless hedonism among the rich and/or upper middle class who put up a facade of meaning and significance. They're using this song to sell a luxury vehicle? Really?

Anyway, have you noticed any other bizarre or ironic music choices in advertisements?
Click to expand...
I suppose it is better than when another automaker trying to sell an SUV used Happy Jack. Hell, why not Fiddle About?!
 
prideandfall said:
carnival cruise lines using iggy and the stooge's "lust for life" (which is a song about drug use)
kodak using the cure's "pictures of you" for their printers (general what-the-fuckery there)
inevitably, any commercial that uses "o fortuna" for basically anything, considering what THAT song is actually about
Click to expand...

Could you discuss the meaning of the songs so that we know why those music choices are ironic?
 
I liked it when Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin was used in a Mercedes Benz commercial. The song was about how the consumerist ideals of buying items like Mercedes Benz's and competing with the high-priced items your neighbours have was an fake kind of happiness and the entire point of the song was anti-materialism. Then it was used to help sell the thing the song was complaining about people buying.
 
Underseer said:
prideandfall said:
carnival cruise lines using iggy and the stooge's "lust for life" (which is a song about drug use)
kodak using the cure's "pictures of you" for their printers (general what-the-fuckery there)
inevitably, any commercial that uses "o fortuna" for basically anything, considering what THAT song is actually about
Click to expand...

Could you discuss the meaning of the songs so that we know why those music choices are ironic?
Click to expand...
lust for life: this is mostly a song about being a drug addict, though in the way of musicians there are several accounts by different people as to what it's directly related to.
but every lyric is about the kind of depraved and scummy existence that comes of being a heroin addict, and the "lust for life" line is ironic in the context of the song.

... have you never heard "pictures of you" by the cure? i'm not sure why i even need to explain that one. they took one line totally out of context from one of the most insanely brain-meltingly depressing songs of all time, and made a printer commercial around it.
the song is about lamenting the love of your life killing themselves and not having been able to stop it, and drowning in the agony of your memories of them while looking through old pictures.

o fortuna is a song that basically says: luck and chance control our lives, skill and will and effort and the hearts of men are meaningless, everything is random and chaotic and uncaring, give up on life because there's nothing you can do about it. using that for basically anything except maybe zoloft is completely idiotic.
 
Mad Men's series finale reminded me of the classic "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" commercial. Let's take the Sixties' notion of peace, harmony, and enlightenment and use it to create the want to consume sugar water.

- - - Updated - - -

I can't say for certain if this has been used in a commercial, but Sting's "Every Breath You Take" is not about being in love.
 
James Brown said:
I can't say for certain if this has been used in a commercial, but Sting's "Every Breath You Take" is not about being in love.
Click to expand...
and the nine inch nails song "closer" isn't about wanting to fuck someone - but i'm sure we could have a substantive thread about "songs grievously misunderstood by most people"
 
Pepsi used 'Brown Sugar,' a song about interracial sex with a slave.
Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doin' all right
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
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Well, probably not ironic.
More of a 'What the FUCK were you thinking?' choice....
 
Not an ironic choice of song in an advert,but an ironic choice of song to use to lecture to students about the importance of attending all your classes.

Pink Floyd - Another brick in the wall

Back at school one of our teachers was worried about how many classes some people were missing or skipping, so he decided to use Another Brick in the Wall as an analogy for how we should attend all our classes. Because our curriculum was like a brick wall and when you miss a class, there's an ugly hole n the wall and wind gets in and the wall isn't as good as it should be. Miss enough classes and the wall will be kissing bricks and will be weaker and might even collapse. So kids,learn your lesson from Pink Floyds and come to school everyday on time and attend all your classes, etc.

We're all staring at him just thinking "what a colossal twat!"
 
Archimedes said:
Not an ironic choice of song in an advert,but an ironic choice of song to use to lecture to students about the importance of attending all your classes.

Pink Floyd - Another brick in the wall

Back at school one of our teachers was worried about how many classes some people were missing or skipping, so he decided to use Another Brick in the Wall as an analogy for how we should attend all our classes. Because our curriculum was like a brick wall and when you miss a class, there's an ugly hole n the wall and wind gets in and the wall isn't as good as it should be. Miss enough classes and the wall will be kissing bricks and will be weaker and might even collapse. So kids,learn your lesson from Pink Floyds and come to school everyday on time and attend all your classes, etc.

We're all staring at him just thinking "what a colossal twat!"
Click to expand...

Did he then ask, "Oh, by the way, which one's Pink"?
 
Not a commercial, nor particularly ironic, but ...

In the 1980s, the BBC Scotland Saturday night sports show Sportscene used as its theme tune the Pink Floyd song Run Like Hell. Only the instrumental part, that is. I don't know why, but they shied away from lyrics like "You better run all day and run all night, keep your dirty feelings deep inside, and if you're taking your girlfriend out tonight, you'd better park the car well out of sight, 'cos if they catch you in the back seat trying to pick her locks, they're going to send you home to mother in a cardboard box, you'd better run ..."
 
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