U2 music in TV commercials?

[Mike P]

I'm watching a football game right now, and a commercial keeps coming on. It's for the NFL playoffs,and the background song is UTEOTW. Does this bother anyone else? I think that this is the first time I've heard a U2 song in an ad, and I hope it isn't the beginning of a trend.

-Mike

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[The Wanderer]

I wouldn't get too despondent over that, if it was a tampax commercial it might be a different thing, fear not good sir, ESPN does this sort of thing all the time with U2 songs, and the Sydney Olympics did it only last year you might recall

 

[tiny dancer]

As I recall The Wanderer the past four Olympics U2 has had their songs played.

 

[kariatari]

I just saw that commercial twice today. I thought it was kinda cool!!

They aren't really using the music to sell a product, the NFL is just trying to promote the play-off games. I think the reason for using UTEOTW may have something to do with U2 playing at the halftime of the Super Bowl.

[This message has been edited by kariatari (edited 01-06-2002).]

 

[The Wanderer]

they just used "Desire" for another segment

 

[mbi16]

I heard the Discotheque riff on an United Way commercial. Thought that was pretty weird and was overwhelmingly relieved to know it was non-profit.

Remember though, the right to use U2 songs to promote the playoffs/Super Bowl was part of the deal when U2 agreed to perform in it. I'd be scared if it were a car commercial.

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Tha Prickly Comedian

 

[Foxxern]

There's another NFL playoff ad using Elevation as the background. Hearing U2 in the background of NFL commercials is nothing new. I've heard them use Bad, WTSHNN, and Desire in the past. Not that big a deal, because it's not as if they're specifically endorsing any product. To me its akin to hearing a song blasting during a break in the gameplay.

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Change is the only constant

 

[mikal]

I love it!

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Look what you did, you little JERK!

Kevin! You're such a disease!

 

[Bonochick]

It doesn't bother me! I love hearing/seeing random U2!

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"I don't know you,
But you don't know the half of it..."

 

[qball7200]

Last week when I was watching one of the wrestling shows, they showed a copy of ATYCLB followed by clips of HHH's recovery using BD as background music. HURRY UP KIDS AND GO BUY ATYCLB JUST FOR BD!!!!! The U2 selling machine is in full force.

 

[speedracer]

That riff from UTEOTW is, I think, a popular one. I remember hearing it in promos for the movie "Proof of Life."

 

[Discoteque]

I've also heard U2 song during some foot-ball related blurb over the Thanksgiving holidays, but can't recall which one. It does bother me, but I wonder if more of their songs will be played because of the whole SuperBowl thang? I guess for sports/ESPN it's just going to happen.

As long as it's not a *cough*REAL*cough* commercial....I'll be fine. No, really.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Well I've got all sorts of problems with this kind of stuff, but that's another story.

Here in Australia, one of our weekly current affairs programs, called Stateline, borrows the opening riff (liberally I might add) from Mysterious Ways as its opening and closing theme. I've no idea why.

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and the waves of conversation
are enough
to knock you down
with the undertow

soooo alone..."

 

[SkeeK]

Originally posted by speedracer:
That riff from UTEOTW is, I think, a popular one. I remember hearing it in promos for the movie "Proof of Life."

A bit from UTEOTW is also looped over the DVD menu screen

 

[TylerDurden]

Also here in Australia I Still Haven't Found... was used in a World Vision ad and years ago Pride was in an Amnesty Intl ad. So..seeing as they are charity type groups...that's ok. But the day I hear U2 in a 'proper' ad, I'll be shitty. Thank god they own their music.

 

[Saracene]

Basically I think that the artists are free to do whatever they want with their own music, but I must admit that I'd probably be a bit saddened if I saw a "heavy", seriously-themed U2 song like SBS or "Pride" in, say, a car commercial. But if it was one of their lighter, more throwaway songs like "Hold Me, Thrill Me..." or "Elevation", I'd have no problem whatsoever.

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by kariatari:
They aren't really using the music to sell a product, the NFL is just trying to promote the play-off games. [This message has been edited by kariatari (edited 01-06-2002).]

yeah that is the product-the playoff games, that's what the NFL brand has to offer.


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itsyourworldyoucanchangeit

 

[Sicy]

I think its kinda cool!

 

[CannibalisticArtist]

i saw an ad with a bit of bad thrown in it, also on WWF, beautiful day is used as the offical welcome music to an injured wrestler.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Originally posted by qball7200:
Last week when I was watching one of the wrestling shows, they showed a copy of ATYCLB followed by clips of HHH's recovery using BD as background music. HURRY UP KIDS AND GO BUY ATYCLB JUST FOR BD!!!!! The U2 selling machine is in full force.

I don't think so.

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But is there sweetness at all?

 

[agentorange]

I also remember seeing a commercial or video from some famine-relief agency last year or so that used WTSHNN.

Personally, I don't mind hearing a good riff from a relatively unknown U2 song in a commercial that will be history within a month or so. And they picked the exact riff that I would have picked for a football commercial. I just hope they don't make a bunch of these commercials using U2.

 

[U2Bama]

Originally posted by Mike P:
I'm watching a football game right now, and a commercial keeps coming on. It's for the NFL playoffs,and the background song is UTEOTW. Does this bother anyone else? I think that this is the first time I've heard a U2 song in an ad, and I hope it isn't the beginning of a trend.

-Mike

I just saw this too; it was some Shannon Sharpe inspirational comercial where he was talking about 12 players on the field or something in that regard.

~U2Alabama

 

[Kieran McConville]

The problem, for me, is not so much U2 selling out (or whatever), because often I think they have little say in the matter.

The problem is when it cheapens the music. I mean, a couple of years from now, are people going to think Elevation is a song about basketball or something.

Sort of like how Tina Turner's 'Simply the Best' has effectively become a football anthem...

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I'm in trouble with my old friend
She is papering the windowpanes
She is putting on a smile
Living in a glasshouse..."

 

[speedracer]

Originally posted by U2Bama:
I just saw this too; it was some Shannon Sharpe inspirational comercial where he was talking about 12 players on the field or something in that regard.

~U2Alabama

12 players on the field? No wonder the Baltimore Ravens defense is so good...