It’s a pretty good rule of thumb that if an ad isn’t memorable, it’s not going be all that effective. What good are competitive statistics, bogus stunts, or expensive production if the customer just can’t remember? A good way to fix that is an earworm soundtrack, a song that simply can’t be forgotten, no matter how hard you try. Welcome to Ad Watch, where you’ll get to see some of the most fun, imaginative, and outrageous car commercials out there and we’ll try to pull back the TV magic to show you how they work on the inside. And when that song is unforgettable three, five, or even ten or twenty years on fro, when you’ve first heard it, it doesn’t matter whether the commercial sold more cars back in the day. It’s still paying dividends long after its shelf life has passed. Don’t believe me? Let’s see if any of these are familiar to you. Subaru with Sheryl Crow, Kia’s hamsters and Black Sheep, Chevy’s “Like A Rock” Ads? If you saw them, you almost certainly remember them. And you almost definitely can’t hear any of those songs without recalling the ads themselves. Not all earworm ads are great. Some of these songs are ones you’d rather forget but just can’t because of that short snippet you heard on TV over and over again. Indeed, even the most clever commercials with songs we know and love get pretty annoying after a couple of views. It’s just the nature of repetition. But ad agencies and their clients don’t care if you think their product is annoying. They’re just satisfied that you’re thinking about their product at all. And you know what? You might just have to hand it to them for that kind of diabolical dedication to occupying more than their fair share of your brain waves. Might. The ads we’ve collected for you here are just a sample of the ones we saw with songs that were a little too catchy. You’re bound to remember at least a few of them. and if you remember any more car ad earworms, drop them in the comments below.
