Are you officially old when they start using “cool” music from your teen years to sell you crap on TV? Lately I’ve noticed a few commercials where the music was from my high school or college days. One, is a JC Penny ad using “Only You” from Yaz – one of my favorite songs to this day. Here is a link to it:
Another, even more disturbing one, was Wendy’s using “Blister in the Sun” by the Violent Femmes to sell double bacon mushroom cheeseburgers! Isn’t that a song about masturbation? I wish I could meet the ad exec that sold this one to Wendy’s. They must have no idea what this song really is… did anyone at Wendy’s bother to read the lyric sheet?
Ritz crackers is also using “I’ll Stop the World and Melt with You” by Modern English, which frankly would be better for bacon double cheeseburgers since I don’t understand the tie in with a cracker. Even in the ad they didn’t melt anything on top of it – just a lot of swirling chicken salad and stuff.
The other one I saw last night was for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups but I can’t find it online anywhere, and I forgot to write the song down, but it was enough to make me notice and feel ancient. Now I know how the baby boomers must feel when they see Dennis Hopper shilling Ameriprise Investments while “Gimme Some Lovin'” booms in the background.
There’s something kind of depressing about it, isn’t there?
nachounderpants.com 
I had the same exact thought when I saw the JC Penney commercial!
Your comment about the ad exec who sold Blister in the Sun to Wendy’s reminds me of the first time I flew Northwest Airlines after they changed their logo to simply “nwa” a few years ago. It struck that a bunch of white guys were sitting around a table and had no idea that their corporate logo is shared by a notrious rap group. Funny!
Cheers,
Jannine
I thought that about nwa too – do you think they figured out that the rap group meant “Niggaz with Attitude?” That ad exec is probably still laughing about it…
I am glad I wasn’t the only one who thought about “Niggaz with Attitude” when I saw the nwa logo. Isn’t it ironic that an airline out of such a white bread state like Minnesota just happened to stumble its way into that logo? Good God.
P.S. I just did a quick Google search to see if I could find any commentary on the NWA/nwa connection. On AOL’s “Music” site where you can download songs, what advertiser do you suppose they paired up with the NWA downloads? You guessed it. So, you can buy airline tickets while, at the same time, listen to your favorite tunes from Straight Outta Compton. Perfect.
Ok – now that’s funn-y
Speaking as one of them there baby boomers, I’d say that you still haven’t experienced the final indignity of hearing “your tunes” on the muzak while shopping.
Whether you prefer Dylan’s original twangy rendition of All Along The Watchtower, or the lush Jimi Hendrix performance of same, you just feel a little deflated when you notice that you’re humming along to the muzak of AATW while shopping for socks.