Commercial Watch

November 12, 2008

It’s time for another edition of “Commercial Watch” and I’ve been noticing quite a few of my favorite artists grabbing some ad time lately.  Occasionally, it’ll be for brands that aren’t exactly my favorite (cough cough, Microsoft), but I cut them some slack because I know there’s mortgages to pay and all that. Here’s a few of the songs I’ve noticed recently with MP3s and link to video.

Cadbury Favorite: Broken Social Scene – Stars and Sons

This is actually a pretty cool commercial.  Guy on a park bench pops open some Cadbury Favorites chocolates and friends start magically appearing from inside picnic baskets, umbrellas, and fold-out chairs. The tag line: “Made For Many”.  It may sound a bit odd, but it’s well-executed due to some cool special effects and a top-notch song selection.

Watch Commercial

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I’m A PC: Girl Talk – Hold Up

I’ve seen Girl Talk twice this year alone, so I’m familiar with his preference of PCs in his shows over Macs.  My theory is that he uses those cheap PC laptops because he trashes them so much on tour and they’re very easily replaceable.  Also, there isn’t a Mac version of Audiomulch, the program he uses.  The music here doesn’t really represent at all what Girl Talk sounds like, it’s a short instrumental section of “Hold Up” with all the samples missing.

Watch Commercial

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Courtyard by Marriot: Junior Boys – In The Morning

Marriott continues to show good taste in their music selection with the new Courtyard ads (I still see the Residence Inn commercials with Andrew Bird all the time).  “In The Morning” is my favorite Junior Boys song, and works great in with the electronic-themed commercial. Full disclosure: I work part-time for Courtyard by Marriott.

Watch Commercial

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Toshiba Range: Crystal Castles – Air War

Another commercial with both great special effects and a killer soundtrack.  The ad employs some crazy time-bending and that “bullet time” effect made famous by The Matrix and Gap Commercials.  At the end it scales back to show a Toshiba TV that is redefining how we watch television. They may be overstating things a little, but it’s still a good commercial.

Watch Commercial

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Windows Vista: The Ruby Suns – Oh, Mojave!

In this ad, Microsoft trick people that aren’t that familiar with their new operating system to think they are using some new OS called Mojave. They then choose the samples that have good things to say about Mojave (actually Vista) to put into their back-patting commercial.  Well, at least the song is good, even if it was only chosen because of the title.

Watch Commercial (looks like it’s already been taken down)

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Victoria Secret: Lykke Li – Little Bit

Heidi Klum has been all over the TV lately with the Guitar Hero World Tour “Risky Business” ad, her regular Victoria’s Secret ads, and Project Runway.  All this really helps me forget about that awful Emmy’s hosting thing.  The ad is for something called IPEX that “only conceals and never reveals”. Huh? It features Swedish sensation Lykke Li’s song “Little Bit”, from the awesome Youth Novels.

Watch Commercial

Let me know if there are any other commercials that I should add.

Posted by Taylor in Television