November 14th, 2005
Most of the time I can tolerate the use of artists’ songs on television commercials. (They gotta make a living somehow.) And sometimes I recognize the melody only from the promo and not from the original: My wife recently pointed out to me the line “Cheese, glorious cheese,” is actually “Food, glorious food” from Oliver! In turn I’ve pointed out to her the drums and guitar riffs used by Cadillac come from Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.”
But there is a limit. A few years ago David Segal of the Washington Post lamented the use of the Turtles’ “Happy Together” in an Applebee’s commercial: “Imagine steak and shrimp, or shrimp and steak / Imagine both of these, on just one plate.”
Over the weekend this might have been topped. The ad was for the new cheese crumbles by Kraft. The song: 1991’s “Unbelievable” by EMF (which stood for what again?)
But instead of “unbelievable,” the Kraft voice sings, “They’re crumbelievable!” (Other lyrics run something like, “The thing. You crave. The big cheese taste will blow you away…”)
No comments yet, be the first:
