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It is the year 2000 and electronic artist Moby is on the verge of calling it quits. His career has tanked. His 1996 album Animal Rights is a commercial and critical failure. And now worse, his current release Play is being outright ignored. 

Then, something happens. Out of nowhere, Play becomes the biggest selling electronica album of all time, topping charts across Europe and ultimately selling 10 million copies worldwide. 

What happened? How did a failed musician catapult to unprecedented success overnight? By licensing every song on the album for commercial use more times than any other song ever.

Power couple: Advertising and music

While Moby’s big break isn’t due entirely to advertising. Film and TV placements deserve some credit. It demonstrates the remarkable power of music and advertising. From Pepsi’s iconic collaboration with Michael Jackson to Apple’s never ending string of track-based spots, the combo of popular music and advertising has a long history of wins. 

The definition of “Selling Out.”

It wasn’t always so. Just a few decades back, the idea of using original music and musicians to sell stuff left a lot of people squeamish. At a time when popular tracks were seen less as market commodities and more as spiritual and political expressions, using songs considered sacrosanct to push products felt like dirtying the soul. 

In 1968, when Buick offered The Doors $75,000 to use “Light My Fire” in a commercial (a lot of cash at the time), lead singer Jim Morrison was so outraged he threatened to smash a Buick on live TV unless the deal was pulled. It’s noteworthy to mention that Buick wanted to change the lyrics to “Come on Buick light my fire.” I shudder to think. 

Perhaps the most notable example of this took place in 1987. When Nike used an original recording from The Beatles catalogue in a commercial for the first time with “Air Revolution.” Fans flew into a rage. “Before Nike’s commercial, any classic pop tune that appeared in an ad video was a cover, a facsimile, like Sunkist’s re-working of “Good Vibrations’ by the Beach Boys,” says Rolling Stone’s Nick Ripatrazone. Yoko Ono brokered the deal, to the dismay of remaining members, Paul, George and Ringo. The band’s label sued. The spot was pulled. But it established a precedent for the licensing practices we know today.

The benefit of “Selling In.”

In a new era of everything-streaming-all-the-time with music sales a fraction of what they used to be, rather than a vehicle for “selling out” ads have become a necessity of survival. To today’s artists what radio was in golden era of disc jockeys, ads can hold the keys to the kingdom. Get placed with the right one and you just might jet-propel to the top of the charts.

Who can forget how Apple launched a generation of music? Their silhouette iPod campaign of the 2000’s made household names of artists like Daft Punk, Feist, The Ting, Tings and Jet. MacBook Air’s 2008 TV spot catapulted both the lightweight laptop and quirky, singer-songwriter Yael Naium into the stratosphere. 

Advertisers have swiped countless others out of obscurity and leveraged some mad music mojo to build brand equity. From the likes of Brooklyn-based duo Matt and Kim who credit their careers to a Bacardi commercial, to Tegan and Sarah’s Lego Movie (both a film and an ad, but that’s another subject for another article) theme song,  to Fun’s breakout hit with a Chevy super bowl spot and so on.

The Ad apocalypse looms

Maybe that paradigm is still true. Or maybe the tide has shifted. Of all the TV spots and campaigns that bolstered artist careers and broke through for brands, the best of the best I can recall took place in the 90’s and early 2000’s when TV was still in full swing. 

As viewers turn to YouTube and streaming services and pay to avoid interruptions – advertisers are in the midst of a reinvention. Flipping the script, music videos are now featuring brands. More brazen examples reek of inauthenticity distancing audiences and raising the “selling out” question yet again. Chris Brown’s 2007 “Forever” music video which covertly doubled as a Wrigley’s Double Mint gum vehicle is one such example.

But when it works, it can work brilliantly, as in Ok Go’s collaboration with Morton Salt. Blink and you might miss it. This is an ad masquerading as a music video with blow-your-mind entertainment and creative value. 

Yes, advertising is evolving, leading hopefully to newer, more delightful and more useful stuff. But persuading people to buy what you’re selling will always take some level of emotional currency, making music an obvious bedfellow. Great music makes us feel, makes us care and at its very best I like to think can make us better. Bono of the band U2 once said, “Music can change the world because it can change people.” And at the heart of it, isn’t that what every artist and advertiser is trying to do?    

Here’s a hit list of some of my favorite examples of music and advertising:

1. Swimblack by Guinness
   Hands down one of my favorite spots. I love the village champion narrative. Directed by the respected John Glazer in 1998, it feels timeless. Thanks, in no small part to its use of 1949’s “Mambo No. 5” by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado. 
2. “Tiny Dancer” by John Lewis
   I have yet to show this to one person who wasn’t absolutely delighted by it. A prosaic version of Sia’s “Chandelier” music video – the little girl, the pacing, the set are all on-point (pun intended). But there’s no way this would have been quite as heart-tugging without the use of Sir Elton John’s beloved track. 
3. “Undeniable” by SickKids
   The soundtrack to this industry-busting spot was created by an artist known as Donnie Daydream. I have no idea who Donnie is, but his track is baller. I first heard it in another commercial for vodka producer Finlandia. And while researching this article, discovered at one time the Cleveland Cavaliers used it as their intro. 
4. “Re-established ft. Lebron James” by Beats by Dre
   Speaking of the Cavs, as a longtime Cleveland resident this ad enormously resonated with me when it released at the same time Lebron James was headed home after his stint with Miami Heat. It propelled artist Hozier to stardom, even getting him a slot in the 2015 Grammys line up. 
5. “Right Now” by Crystal Pepsi
   Pepsi used the Van Halen single, “Right Now” during the XXVII Super Bowl to launch Crystal Pepsi. And it is something. A naked baby on a sea floor dissolves into a standing naked baby on a sea floor. A man rides a bicycle across a sky full of clouds. Drop shadow text resemble the memes your mom shares on Facebook. There’s a rhino. I can’t tell if this was meant to be ironically bad, or edgy? In any case, it’s memorable. 
6. California Raisins by the California Raisin Advisory Board
   And because I’m a product of the 80’s and 90’s, I’m throwing this one in for kicks and giggles.
   Fun fact: after first appearing in commercials, the Claymation quartet had a Billboard Hot 100 hit, earned an Emmy nomination and starred in several of their own television specials.