It's Everyone's Thing

You have to wonder what advertisers are thinking when they choose music for their commercials. Obviously they're trying to associate a catchy, usually energetic and positive, song with their product.Ford has decided to build their entire campaign around Rachel Platten's "Fight Song."  It's the kind of transparently defiant pop song that I honestly was surprised was not by Kelly Clarkson. Is that really the tone to sell cars? They're trying to convince me to buy a compact crossover, then close-out the pitch with a song of someone trying to overcome a personal crisis.

But what really surprises me is that advertisers don't consider the problems with reusing a song. They're trying to associate their product with the song, so you'd think they'd shut away from songs already associated with a different product. Yes, "Good Morning" seems like the ideal music for an orange juice ad, but don't they know we've been trained to associate that song with Viagra?

But the worst is "It's Your Thing." Already made annoying by Ramada, now both Phillips and SlimFast are using it. Strangely, the latter seem to be building their whole campaign around the song, using the title for their website and hashtag. With all the music in the world, why would anyone reuse psychologically-polluted songs like these? I can only assume it's because the folks who own the rights to these songs are much quicker to sell permission than most. Indeed, "It's Your Thing" was by The Isley Brothers, who also recorded "Shout," another song abused by commercials.  So, Messrs Isley, please have some self-respect and raise your rates