Are you more annoyed when TV ads use songs you like or songs you hate?

[Bossy Monkey]

I'd imagine that the answer for most is going to be that it depends on the song, on how much you like it or how much you hate it. For instance, I apparently am the only person on Earth who doesn't think that "This Will Be" by Natalie Cole is some kind of universal statement on love and romance, judging by the number of date-type movies that use it in their advertising (not to mention the loathsome Neil Clark Warren's eHarmony). I very much dislike the song and always have and always turn off these commercials as quickly as I can. But it's nothing compared to the white-hot fury I felt when Wrangler briefly used CCR's "Fortunate Son," bowdlerized so that it sounded like a flag-waving song instead of an antiwar anthem. Ditto "London Calling" for Jaguar, Ramones for some wireless provider, the 5,6,7,8s for frigging everything. So I guess I'm in the "songs I like category." You?

[Bossy Monkey]

1. C'mon! I need a tie-breaker

or
Been a long time since I rock-n-rolled...:P

[Bossy Monkey]

2. One final plaintive kick--

help me latenightlians!

[last_texas_dem]

3. I'm gonna go with "Songs I Like"

The "Fortunate Son" example is an excellent one: a great song with a great message, deliberately edited so that it sounds like a knuckle-headed "patriotic anthem" ("Some folks are born/ Made to wave the flag") to sell blue jeans. And to add insult to injury, I believe that's an example of an artist not owning the rights to his own music and thus unable to stop them from getting used in such a fashion. (John Fogerty has a long-running feud with CCR's old label, Fantasy Records; I believe he has no control of what gets done with his old music.)

There are other examples of cool songs that often had messages that just simply, IMHO, shouldn't be used to sell products. It seems like there are now countless Who songs being used in commercials. I think at least one of the surviving members supports this and has put down those who have a problem with it. Sorry, I just don't buy the whole "it's my song, I'll do whatever the hell I want with it" justification. Have some respect for your fans, or better yet, have some self-respect.

As for songs I don't like in commercials, well, they can get annoying, but they really don't bother me as much because they are often songs already overplayed by radio that it's nearly impossible to escape if I were to try to. Also, commercial jingles often seem to be intentionally annoying, maybe so they will lodge into your brain more easily. I kind of put songs I don't like in commercials in the same group as annoying commercial jingles. Maybe I'd rather not hear them, but it's still not as bad as hearing "I'm Free" to sell a car or "Time of the Season" to sell tampons.

[Jamastiene]

4. Yeah, it annoys me that they are using the

Ramones to advertise junk I don't use. They are using "Blitzkrieg Bop for Pepsi now too, I think. I usually mute the commercials nowadays, but part of it for me is that song I don't like that they used for it seemed like years called "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". When I was a little kid, I liked that song, but I have heard it so much now, I don't ever want to hear that one again. Also, Skynyrd. I hear it everywhere I go here in town. I don't want it on tv too. Confession. I used to like them ages ago. I've heard their music so much now, it just doesn't seem to go away. I'd probably hate to hear my favourites too if they were played in my face from sunup to sundown forever and ever. I'd have to say I'd fall in the category of songs I don't like. I can live with hearing the Ramones because I like them enough. I just have to get over the crap they are being used to advertise. That's the hard part of hearing songs I do like, depending. I'm all over the board on this answer, but hands down I'd have to say definitely songs I don't like annoy me more.