Do you remember the days gone by when jingles in television ads contained familiar samples of famous songs? Some of these included women “Washing the Grey Right Outta Their Hair” or using window cleaner to “Put On A Windex Shine.” Last night while watching Cars while sitting four terrific kids (although two of their overnight sleeping habits…), there was a State Farm insurance add that included lines from “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” to promote their partnership with the Disney Channel to increase teenage driving safety. My concern with that is I could not recognize the TUNE at all. I realize that decades have passed since South Pacific, Bye, Bye Birdie, and The Sound of Music were considered cool. And, unless radically changed to fit today’s teenage tastes, the music from these shows even less cool. A few years ago, Gwen Stefani sampled “If I Were A Rich Man” in her aptly titled “Rich Girl.” At least with the old ads, the tunes were familiar instead of dressed up to make them SOUND like something they are not. But I suppose companies and artists(?) have to advertise to their target demographics. Sorry I did not try harder to come up with clips of all the ads.
I remember the “Wash that grey” commercial, but not the Windex one. That song was a parody of “Put on a Happy Face” (as that is one of your keywords) I presume?
Precisely, derek. I thought it strange that I could not find the commercial on youtube as readily as the “Wash the grey…” commercial.