Maybe Of Montreal Should Sell A Few More Songs To Commercials

mariasci | October 20, 2008 12:00 pm

“Saved by zero!” You’re pissed off already, aren’t you? Well, if it’s any consoloation, you’re not alone. All sorts of people have complained about the Toyota ad that features that maddening jingle, and there’s even a Facebook hate group devoted it it. What makes it so annoying? Well, it’s running in “seemingly every ad break during NCAA Football, MLB Playoffs and NFL games,” it’s sometimes shown multiple times per break, the song has only one lyric, and that one lyric is repeated four times in thirty seconds, with a straight rhythm that makes it feel like you’re being yelled at. Oh, and the lyric doesn’t mean anything. Sadly, though, it’s not a unique case.

The worst jingles these days seem to be confined to local ads. Witness Wet Pets.

And Alexander and Catalano.

And, of course, Empire Carpets, whose jingle hasn’t changed since they were a Chicago-area store.

Surely you all have your favorites. But arguably the new era of indie-soundtracked ads isn’t much better, at least if Noah and the Whale’s Saturn ad is anything to go by. Maybe in two years we’ll all be dancing to some underground DJ from Topeka (former dental assistant!) mashing up snowplow jingles with those Looney Tunes PSAs they used to run on WPIX all the time, and we can shed a single tear for Neil Young.

‘Saved By Zero’ Makes Viewers Into Victims [AdGrabber]