Daytona 500 commercial on FOX features "Bad"

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rwolins1

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I was just watching the Packers-Cardinals NFL game and an ad for the Daytona 500 came on with "Bad" as the soundtrack of the commercial (not on youtube yet). Anyone know if U2 has any association with NASCAR?
 
Just watch 30 seconds of some Nascar and Dale Ernhart (sp?) footage and play Bad in the background. It'll be a reasonable facsimilie.
 
Bono does like to visit the race cars once in a while. :hmm:

Anyways, I was reading these posts on Twitter earlier today. May not be the exact reason but could be a possibility:

atu2

RT @mattmcgee: Wow, FOX using U2's "Bad" as backing music on a Dayton 500/NASCAR commercial.

@atu2

"synch" rights (TV ad, film) for a "recognizable" excerpt of a song would normally get licensed straight by publisher. But...
the big networks can get an overall license covering this kind of thing, so no one-off permissions needed here (probably)

I used to work in music copyright if I haven't told you that.
(posted by) beth_may


Although if it were so easy for them it seems we would hear a lot more u2 on TV :shrug:
 
Anyone know if U2 has any association with NASCAR?

There was also a U23D car wasn't there? I don't know if it ever raced but I know there are photos of it. :hmm:

Found one

U23D-Nascar.jpg
 
Thanks for posting this--I thought I was hearing things! My son actually saw the commercial and started screaming "mom there's a U2 commerical on". Needless to say I was very surprised that it was for car racing, not for U2!
 
I thought the commercial was well done...great pacing to the video, great shots...well done.
 
Hubby told me about it. He wasn't sure if it was U2 (shame on him) but after reading this I will have to let him know it was.
 
Is Daytona particularly notorious for its heroin abusing drivers or something? All I really know about it is that Daytona 95 was a DAMN good arcade game.
 
It's actually a live version of Bad I believe, sounds like the Rattle and Hum version based on vocals at the end. I wonder if the ownership rights to that movie ties back in somehow and could explain anything.
 
It's just so disconcerting, and I think because of the song used. Bad is maybe my favorite U2 song ever, but it seems inappropriate for that type of promo. I'm pretty much desensitized to hearing Beautiful Day and COBL for those types of things, but Bad?

could not agree with you more
it is inappropriate in so many ways
 
U2 has been allowing FOX and the NFL to use their songs for a long time now (Elevation playing as the announcers break to a commercial, etc.) They must figure that Bad is 25 years old, and one of the ways of keeping it alive in the public consciousness is to license it out. I'm not a big fan of NASCAR but it's wildly popular, demographics-wise, among U.S. men from the south and it's been growing in popularity nationally.
 
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