Any commercial with the Zombies' "Time of the Season" is OK with me, even if it isn't the original recording.

+ 1 jc

now all i need is 'turn, turn, turn' by the byrds in the background and i know all is lost to commercialism.....

btw jd, nice choices

You'd be surprised at the number of TV commercials that use popular music. Take a look at this list.

http://www.whatisthatsong.net/commercials/commercialsa-z.html

This is the commercial that hit this point home for me.

This always stays with me. Even though it has never been broadcasted here in Europe.

Lincoln LS Commercial - Surprising Journey



]

Featuring a remixed version of Rob Dougan's Clubbed to death 2 music.

VMP

I am not a fan of either that commercial or the "Time of the Season" cover. I grew up with that music, and for me, this is one of the seminal songs of the late 1960s, coming just around the time of "Sgt. Peppers."

If you must put video over this music, at least do it the way it would have been done -- actuallly, the way it was done -- back then. THIS is the '60s I remember:



Yes, I know, if you remember the '60s, you didn't actually live it ...


P.S. I love the brief shots taken at the NY World's Fair. I went both years and remember exactly where those shots were taken, like it was yesterday.

@ VMP

The Lincoln LS commercial included some fascinating visual effects. I might have seen it when it was broadcast, but I hardly watched TV then.

@ johnmeyer

Oh, the wayback machine. I've said many times that I'd do the sixties twice (including the Viet Nam war) if I didn't have to do the eighties at all.

"BTW why is my link not showing as a embedded youtube video? (above ones are)"

Get rid of the "S" in httpS. Make it just http in the URL.

This one knocks it out of the park for me:

]

That's my all-time favorite Enya song. I've used it in several private videos for friends and families.

However, I don't think the lyrics fit the commercial at all, other than the single line "Who can say where the road goes...":

Lyrics


I do love my MTV, and love syncing music to video (when will I be able to get a license in the USA to do this commercially??) but I do wonder about the decision to sell cars using this ethereal love song.

P.S. Was this really filmed as shown (backwards; at speed; on the truck for real; no nets)?

@ john_dennis Indeed!

@ Gary James Thanks, that did it.

P.S. Was this really filmed as shown (backwards; at speed; on the truck for real; no nets)?

No nets but they did have safety wires.
How Volvo Created the Jean-Claude Van Damme ‘Epic Split’ Video
How Volvo Created the Jean-Claude Van Damme ‘Epic Split’ Video


Mike

I've always been a sucker for the Budweiser horse ads that run during the Superbowl :)
Two of my favourites though are the Apple 1984 spot and the Eminem Chrysler spot. Both ads were, IMHO, very well shot and edited. I've lived across the river from Detroit since 1974 and am sad to see how what was once a vibrant city has deteriorated over the years to the point that it is now in bankruptcy protection :(





Mike

I was intrigued until the BoA logo popped up at the end and ruined it... Would have been perfect Sony or Canon commercial. (:

This one held my attention and always grabs me in the end.



The fall follow-on to my last favorite doesn't hold up in the fall colors...

As far as music in commercials, I still wonder why Amex decided to use this. Perhaps they didn't know the song was meant to be satire?



Amex?: "I'm looking for pound notes, loose change, bad checks, anything. Gimme some money!"

"Money don't buy everything, that's true,
but what it don't buy,
honey I can't use."

Barrett Strong

Many Years ago there was an Ad for Preparation H, and in the background was the melody to an old Elvis song titled "Please release Me - Let Me Go".

I always wondered if some ad writer was laughing about how no one realized what he had done...

John, had not see the Guiness ad. Choked me up more than a little...

"I always wondered if some ad writer was laughing about how no one realized what he had done..."

Perhaps, the ad writer had worked as a Country & Western musician. By the time I began playing dives in the early '60s that song had been done until most musicians were sick of it and had numerous "alternate" verses they used just to keep their sanity. In that era, it was usually attributed to Ray Price and Kitty Wells, but it was successfully recorded by Englebert Humperdink and just about everyone else as recently as 2012.

Several really good commercials here. I liked the Lincoln and Volvo ones. Which got me to remembering the Ford GT40 Superbowl commercial that evoked a lot of emotion for me when I first saw it back in 2004. It is a shame I can't find it in anything better than 240p though.

/jerry

Ah, yes, I remember the Volvo trucks ad. I'd never seen the "making of" videos before, but I'd always thought the beauty of the stunt was that there weren't any tricks played. Now it turns out there was a safety rope! Still, I wince when I see him doing the splits.

As for the GT40, my standards have been recalibrated ever since seeing the Bugatti Veyron on Top Gear hit 270+mph. A car that can reach 200? Feh. Plus the fact you can't enter or exit easily if you're in a parking lot with cars on both sides (the door has a giant horizontal ledge on the top).