TVSquad

I've got to add the Sunkist commercial from the 80s which used the Beach Boys singing "Good Vibrations" with different lyrics. Now granted, the real version of this song is so damn good that the commerical couldn't possibly "ruin" it, but hearing the ad certainly bugged the heck out of me everytime it aired.

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That Outback commercial with the re-written version of an Of Montreal song really annoys me. "Let's pretend we don't exist" turns into "Let's go to Outback tonight." I lost a lot of respect for Of Montreal for signing off on something so crassly commercial.

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I am tired of them using the Rolling Stones and Beatles songs for their lame commercials!! I love those songs and grew up listening to them. Now they are abused by the ads. Doesn't Michael Jackson get royalties for the Beatle songs if they are played on t.v.? Leave it to him to screw something else.

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The colgate ad WAS a rip off from a British ad. My family lived overseas in the mid 80s and it became a much imitated song and dance routine by me and my siblings. I can't hear Baggy Trousers without visualizing the robotic school boys. . .my mom freaked when it came out over hear a few years later.

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Seriously? *ANY* song that was used for an iPod commercial. Seeing idiots dance like, well, idiots leaves a very sour taste in my mouth for what used to be catchy songs.

Now I can't stand the songs, because all I can imagine is people dancing with a white box and white lines dangling, no, thrashing about around their head.

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I think the term "ruined" is used a little too casually here. In order for a song to be ruined I believe it needs to be so closely associated with the product that you forget who wrote or performed the original version, or what the original lyrics were. Not just used poorly in an add campaign.

e.g. "Anticipation" by Carly Simon. Nobody can hear that song without thinking catchup. That song has been ruined.

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Here's the URL to my blog post with the original UK version of the Colgate ad. While it's still an ad, it at least keeps the style and flavor of Madness, which the US version completely ignores.
http://www.rabbireport.com/archives/nutty_boys_inde.htm

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Sheraton Hotels keeps reminding us that "We belong" They leave out the part about "to the thunder." Why, Pat Benatar? Why?

But, hey, that's better than the Mercury Milian trying to sell me with Morning Wood. Anyone else think it's wannabe-hip-annoying to the "Nth degree"?

xoxo

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7. I think the term "ruined" is used a little too casually here. In order for a song to be ruined I believe it needs to be so closely associated with the product that you forget who wrote or performed the original version, or what the original lyrics were. Not just used poorly in an add campaign.
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There's a classic rock song used by Toyota that's like that. I can't remember the song, but, every time I hear it I'm expecting a Toyota ad.

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A song that a TV commercial ruined for me was Eric Clapton's "After Midnight". It was used in a over-run beer commercial in the 80s. I still think of the commercial if I hear the song.

What's even more scary is that when I was a kid and commercials came on using a pop song from my parents' generation, they would become melancholy - "Oh remember that song? I can't beleive they are using it in a commercial." Suddenly I am uttering the same words...

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well, pop songs have been reused on commercials for ever on TV so these are no suprise to me. However don't always blame the band for "selling out"

Alot of times it is the label who owns the re-production rights on a song and THEY are the ones who sell it.

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I didn't think the "Anticipation" ketchup ad ruined the song. At least it was the original artist and they didn't change the lyrics.

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This can go both ways. I hate it when The Who's "Bargain" is used in commercials. But I really enjoy Cadillac's use of The Zep's "Rock and Roll."

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I MUST add circuit city for killing, absolutely slaughtering "just what i needed" by the Cars. I used to love that song, and the cars, now it just makes me groan.

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One of my favorite songs, "Like A Rock" by Bob Seger has been deflowered by those thugs at Chevrolet and their damnable trucks!!

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Car commercials are the worst. They often Take songs and ruin the meaning, two egregious examples are Mercedes taking the song from Janis Joplin and a Toyota Rav4 commercial using "what do I get" by the Buzzcocks.

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Am I the only one who can't hear the Elton John song "Sad Songs Say So Much" with out hearing Vidal Sassoon's campaign from the 80's "Sassoon Says So Much"?

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the worst offenders have been mentioned here (maxwell's 'our house' and 'crumbelievable' - the latter being a crappy song to start, but what an insanely retarded pun)
i just remember about 6-8 years ago being impressed w/ the cool old songs that were turning up on commercials: there was the rav-4 ad w/ the buzzcocks' 'what do i get,' madness' 'one step beyond' was used in an ad for a search engine (don't remember which now)... i just remember thinking at the time, i guess my generation is running the world at this point, huh?

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I'm not sure if it has been ruined, but I cannot take Iggy Pop's Lust For Life seriously anymore since those cruise commercials. They cut it off before they start talking about the liquor and the drugs.

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