Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with commercial

Help me identify the Ghirardelli ad music

rdauphin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:42:12 -0800

What is the bit of classical music behind the Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark commercial on TV? I just saw the commercial and heard a snippet of classical music that I've been trying to identify. The ad is specifically for Ghirardelli's Peppermint Bark. Can you name that tune?

Help us put Starbucks out of business, for a week.

yom3ts — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:06:00 -0800

Any tips on a short-team lease of retail space in Manhattan? Brainstormfilter: Modeled after the costume shops that pop up for a month or so around Halloween and then disappear, combined with the down retail market, we're considering a short-term lease of a small commercial space to get the word out about our brand and products. The idea would be to offer freebies to attract a crowd (did someone say free cup of coffee?), and use the space as a showroom for our equipment and for our salespeople to make some quick contacts.

Granted, Manhattan's real estate market isn't experiencing the same horrors as some other parts of the country, but if we're ever going to do this, now has to be the time. Any tips/info on leasing retail space for as short as a few weeks to a few months, tops?

Is there a term for this real estate strategy?

creeky — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:19:39 -0800

Is there a word for the strategy of real estate companies who buy up properties in one area and keep the buildings empty in order to force out local businesses? Not far from where I live, a real estate project management company was given the task of improving a commercial area. They did this by buying out many commercial spaces in the area and keeping them empty, forcing out other "undesirable" small businesses as the area became abandoned by customers. They then bought up all the commercial spaces and rented them out to "classier" businesses.

Is there a term that people working in real estate would use for this tactic?

Please help me kill this ear worm!

knmr76 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:34:11 -0800

I just caught the end of a Ford commercial and am being driven insane by not being able to figure out what the song is and who sings it (I know it, just can't put my finger on it). Can anyone help? It's a male voice, he's singing "nah nah nah nah nah nah nah" Sounds a little indie rock on the folksy side. Please help me otherwise I'll obsess about it all night long.

Money can buy me love?

rtimmel — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:34:50 -0800

Okay, whats the deal. When did The Beatles become fair game? I just saw a BlackBerry ad featuring All You Need is Love. Its the second Beatles' song I've seen in the last few weeks (I can't remember the other one). However, neither of them were by The Beatles, they were covers. Plus, there's Rock Band, and the reissued catalog. All of a sudden, The Beatles, for the first time, have gone commercial.

Is it a move by Apple to capitalize on the IP while they still can (and by Apple, I assume I mean Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and various heirs)? And why now? Is someone short of cash? Did Michael Jackson's death have something to do with it? I didn't think he still had a stake in the catalog, but maybe I'm wrong. It just seems odd the floodgates open after almost forty years.

What was that "Make the Boomers PAY" commercial I saw as a kid?

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:24:59 -0800

I remember this commercial from back in last century, about the youth putting their elders on trial, basically for leaving them an f'd-up world. I also remember it getting pulled from the airwaves for ruffling too many feathers. What was it? I remember the scene as being dark, with rows of kids looking down in judgment on this old man.

The prosecutor was this young blond boy, and his message, as I remember it, communicated "Your generation screwed things up! You pooched the environment, muddied the waters, befouled the air, saddled us with debt, all while living the high life.

"Now we have to deal with the mess you, our elders made before we were even born. What have you to say for yourself?"

And the old man stammers something like "Uh... we didn't know."

Those are my impressions. What was this, and am I remembering correctly that it got yanked for touching too many raw nerves?

And yes, I'm assuming the elder on trial would have been an old Boomer by the time depicted in the scene. Having read 13th Gen; Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? is why I make that assumption. Just FYI.

Free Music for Commercial Use

lemonfridge — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:23:08 -0800

Where can I source good quality music (not cheesy synth) for free that I can use commercially? Is there such a thing? I'm under pressure at work to add soundtracks to some videos we recently put together.

The videos demonstrate how one of our product works, and what comes with it.

I guess that makes it a commercial video, or an advert. They are mainly for our YouTube channel, but will also be embedded on our own website, and possibly a rather well known online shop.

As is always the way; I'm not being given any budget for the soundtracks, and they have to be of high quality.

I've attempted to make something myself using some audio editing software but it is something completely out of my knowledge.

Do I have any hope of finding, good, free music?

Public media business models

parmanparman — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:05:15 -0800

How does Gourmet: Diary of a Foodie get funded? Is it just like a non-commercial commercial for Gourmet magazine and its advertisers and then given away to public radio stations?

Where can I find this song?

fogonlittlecatfeet — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:58:34 -0800

Looking for a song I heard in a commercial today... "Hold On" in the Healthtex advertisement. i heard a song in a Healthtex baby clothing commercial today.
with a little searching it seems that it is called Hold On and was written for the commercial, by a couple of the guys from They Might Be Giants.

The little bit i hear sounds remarkably like "the World Spins Madly On" by the Weepies.

Can anyone confirm a connection?
I can't seem to find any where to get the song as an Mp3 can any one help me with that?

I can get a toe, what about the shirt?

eytanb — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:10:56 -0800

I shall not rest until I find the shirt donned in the VW "Dudeism" commercial. Without even knowing of the existence of the religion, I have been religiously following everything this suggests and have a feeling this shirt will tie the room together. Anyone know where I can get the DaVinci shirt of the Dude?

What's that song from "The Shack" commercial?

geekchic — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:35:54 -0800

Looking for the name of a song in a Radio Shack commercial. It's a newer TV commercial that says "The Shack sells more phones than the population of Scandinavia." The song has lyrics that don't sound like English. I wish I had a link but all of my Googling has failed.

Give a Song a Title

bach — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:02:27 -0800

Mad Men TV Commercial Tune The new TV spot for Mad Men has in the background a great tune that is too short for shazam or any tune-finder to latch onto.

It begins with voiceover, "The critics agree..." and then cuts to text cued to a brass hit (bop, bop, bop, [lower]bop). Repeat, add ooh and ahh lyric.

Can anyone help me with the title and artist. I looked at AdBlather and AdTunes without success.

It's been airing quite a bit on the Food Network lately.

Thanks in advance.

What is that groovy bass line in the Cablevision commercials?

kenliu — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:15:46 -0800

What is that groovy bass line on those Cablevision commercials? There are a series of recent Cablevision commercials with a dark haired dude talking in front of a white background - these all end with a really groovy bass line. Is that from a real song, or is it just something they just recorded for the commercial?

Gander Mountain theme song

stubby phillips — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:12:51 -0800

i want to listen to a radio commercial without the words. a situation has arisen where i have to think about Gander Mountain (they sell outdoor equipment) a lot. every time i hear or read the words "Gander Mountain" the theme song for their radio commercials pops into my head. i love this tune.

i think i can play this tune on my mandolin. i just need to listen to it a couple times when i'm not in my car to make sure. can anybody help me find an mp3 of it so i can verify my imperfect recollections?

Funny Commercial

CollectiveMind — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:27:27 -0800

What is the company that makes the commercial where bikers enter a cafe and approach a table with a dad, his wife and daughter. The dad has just finished telling his girl something, to which, she has rolled her eyes. Then the bikers stop at the dad and the wife and daughter looked panicked. But they show the dad respect and he fist punches them back while recognizing and acknowledging them. The wife practically faints but the daughter suddenly has new-found respect for her seemingly geeky dad. And, is that commercial available for viewing online anywhere?

Need help ID'ing music in a commercial

beammeup4 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:27:42 -0800

Can anyone identify the music from this humorous Cheers Beer commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IILoTmIXd7s We're going to parody it and would like to use the music or music of similar dramatic fashion.

Laugh, enjoy, and help me out!

Da Da Da ...

mr.anthony337 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:19:56 -0800

Please help me find a website from the past that explained what soundtracks commercials were using. I am looking for a website that was fairly popular in the IT circles I as in back around 2000/2001. It was dedicated to posting new commercials, and sourcing their soundtracks. I ended up buying quite a few CDs based on hearing songs in commercials and being able to find out quickly through that site, who and what I was listening to.

I'm pretty sure the site is long dead and gone. I believe there was some legal scuffle over it, and it went the way of the dodo. What I'd like to find out is, what was it? What was the story of it's creation and demise? And, if possible, has anyone done anything like it since, or currently?

Members of the Tribe

AngerBoy — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:45:29 -0800

How many commercial products can you think of that are named after Native American groups or other indigenous peoples?

The best I can do are: Jeep Cherokee, Pontiac cars, and, um...Eskimo pies. But there must be more, right? Note: I'm NOT looking for products which use Native American or indigenous peoples' imagery in their marketing (like American Spirit cigarettes), or sports franchises. How many can you come up with?

In what percentage of large passenger jet crashes are there any survivors? And on those occasions, what is the average survival rate?

Joe Beese — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:03:49 -0800

In what percentage of large passenger jet crashes are there any survivors? And on those occasions, what is the average survival rate?

French Music ID Filter

mattr — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:02:58 -0800

About 5 years ago there was a TV commercial (I think for BUPA) in the UK featuring a French song which I guess was from the sixties. The only lyric I can remember is (I think) "Quand votre coeur fait boom..." commercialbreaksandbeats.com is the usual place for answers on this - but they seem to be in the dead pool. Anyone have any ideas what I might be talking about?

Begin the Beguine on my iPod

Toekneesan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:46:05 -0800

What is the best way to get music onto the iTunes store for sale? Not something of my own, but popular music from the 30s and 40s which the institution I work for has the rights to. I've been asked to see if I can get some of Fred Waring's recordings onto the iTunes store for sale but I'm not quite sure how to get content onto iTunes. Some of the advice I've gotten suggests the only way to do it is to find the appropriate aggregator and have them work out the deal. Is that the only way? If so, who might be appropriate for the music of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians?

If it's going to be empty anyway, why not?

Medieval Maven — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:50:00 -0800

How common is it, or is it common at all, for a commercial property management company to donate the use of space to a nonprofit? We run a very, very tiny nonprofit theater, and we could use some sewing workshop space. There are a ton of older strip malls around our location. Lots of space has remained vacant in these locations for quite a long time, and things being what they are, I cannot imagine that's ripe for change. Is there any advantage to a big company in donating space to a nonprofit? At $10-$14/square foot and assuming about 1,000 square feet (which is average), it seems to me that's 10-14K a month that could be written off as a charitable contribution. We would basically be ready to be "evicted" if they had anyone who wanted to pay to be in the space, so our long-term occupation of the space should not be considered a problem (or so I would think). Any commercial r/e people who want to weigh in, I'd be really interested in your take on this kind of proposal. Assume, as it would be correct, that we do not have cash on hand enough to pay for any kind of rent.

Nailed it!

meggan — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 10:45:32 -0800

Need help finding an online version of the "Nailed it!" WaMu commercial to watch. Post-yoga this morning, my instructor was demonstrating a pose and jokingly said, "Nailed it!" which prompted some of my co-workers to remember a commercial.

Guy walks into a board meeting late, and explains it by saying, "Sorry, I'm late, I had a job interview. Nailed it!" The "nailed it" is in a high voice, and the commercial appears to be from Washington Mutual. I have never seen this commercial myself, and my co-workers would love to see it again.

Google has failed me in terms of coming up with the actual video file to watch. I've found a bunch of references to it and how awesome it is, but... no actual video. Help!

Thanks in advance!

Bad Idea Jeans

namewithhe1d — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:57:11 -0800

Bad Idea Jeans could easily be one of my favorite commercial parodies of all time. Did they exist in real life? Is the reference on the bottom of this page real? I would love to see the actual commercial of this if it exists...

Link to video of an Acura commercial?

xmutex — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:24:45 -0800

There's this Acura commercial about the collision safety of one of its new cars, and the advert is a series of shots of people in normal environs (office, outdoors, etc) being essentially blown backwards as if in a collision. It's hypnotic. I could watch it all day. I'm not sure what that says about me, but can anyone find this commercial on Youtube or some similar site?