music video commercial MTV

MTV stopped played music video long ago. It was split into MTV 1, MTV 2 and MTV Tres. And they’re all inundated with really bad reality shows so where can you find your music videos? Commercials.

It’s a win-win. You discover a new song and the advertiser gets to sear their product into your brain with a catchy chorus line. Even when the music completely overshadows the product at the very least it gets people to broach the subject with their friends when they try to figure out what the song is. Who can forget the brightly bicolored eye candy that was Apple’s ipod commercial.

Surprisingly advertisers have yet to completely comprehend this as we’re still being held hostage by ineffective jigglesque commercials. Ironically, Apple is an one the biggest offenders with its new iphone commercial, which if you listen closely sounds like a jack-in-the-box winding up. The jingle is dead. People can’t/don’t/won’t sing along with a jingle. This includes wordless techno/hip-hop music commercials.

The exception to the rule is Comcast’s parody commercial (video right), in which the greedy mostly white businessmen sing about ripping off the consumer, proving everyone loves an L7. But back to the topic at hand, below are the top 6 commercial that feature actual songs. Warning: after seeing these commercials you will feel compelled to buy their products. Watch only if you can afford it! These are in no particular ranking but the songs are as follows: Eagles of Death Metal – I Want You So Hard, Teddybears (Iggy Pop) – Punk Rocker, Shiny Toy Guns – Le Disko, Flaming Lips – The Wand, Motion City Soundtrack – This is for Real, and Ben’s Brother – Stuttering