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Commercials: the new music video

Get an earful with the season's hottest commercial music.

Published Aug. 27, 2009

Forget listening to the radio for music. Watch television commercials instead. This summer there are some outstanding music and exhilarating visuals featured in commercials for Bacardi, "Nip/Tuck" and AT&T. These advertisements are a heavenly break from boring, monotonous advertisements and can be better than the actual television program they are interrupting. The song "Daylight," by Matt and Kim, is featured in Bacardi's latest commercial for mojitos is so enthralling that you might actually be sad when it ends. "Daylight" is off Grand," the band's second album, which was released in January. The commercial starts out with the beginning lyrics of "Daylight:" "We cut the legs off of our pants/Threw our shoes into the ocean/Sit back and wave through the daylight." The words are uplifting and radiate the feeling of a perfect summer, and the drums and keyboard are fun and fresh. After a few more lines from the song, the commercial finishes off with the chorus. "And in the daylight we can hitchhike to Maine/I hope that someday I'll see without these frames/And in the daylight I don't pick up my phone/Cause in the daylight anywhere feels like home." The visuals of the commercial are as striking as the music. A man wearing a suit jacket at a present day party sets down his empty glass that once held a mojito. He walks through lively parties of different eras, in descending order, until reaching a bar at a party in presumably in 1862, which is when Bacardi introduced the mojito. Of course the bartender gives him another mojito and he turns to head back to his own era.

Timbaland's song "2 Man Show" is heard in the preview for the upcoming season of "Nip/Tuck," which will premier Oct. 17. The song's strong beat fits smoothly with the edgy persona of the show. "2 Man Show" is off the album Shock Value, which was released in April 2007.
The clip of the song heard in the preview showcases strong female voices singing "I heard that/Come on and play that back/I'm really feeling that/Come on smash the track/It's just the regular two man show." The music gives the commercial the seductive ambiance Nip/Tuck is known for. The two-man show refers to the show's main characters, two adventurous plastic surgeons Sean McNamara and Christian Troy. The many sensual clips in the commercial, jumping quickly from one to the next, keep you mesmerized. Women are shown sewing, but they are not dreary housewives. They are hot bombshells in formfitting red dresses. One is shown, in a close up, putting red thread in her mouth to make it smooth for a needle. In addition to the red dresses and thread, the high heels, lips and toenails are all red as well. The commercial also shows a lot of leg, and a few cleavage close-ups, but is tame compared to what is in the actual show.

Mary J. Blige graces AT&T's commercial for its full keyboard phones with her song "The One" featuring Drake, and she herself is the visual star of the advertisement. The single was released in July, and this hot commercial shows off the new song with class. From the start of the music, Blige strongly declares, "Them other girls that you done been with/None of them got nothing on me/Ain't got my style/They ain't got nothing on me." While this song clearly is about boyfriend-girlfriend relationships, it translates well to people's relationships with their cell phones. Everyone wants a good, quality phone, so there are no, or only a few, fights with it when it does not work properly. The line, "Quality/I'm custom fitted," convinces you the song was written about having your ideal phone. The commercial shows Blige strutting, while outfits of various styles and colors fly on and off her, as she uses different cell phones. The movement of the clothing is very eye-catching, and meshes with the beat of the song. At the end of the commercial, the words "a phone for every style" appears on the screen, telling you the meaning of the commercial in case you missed it.