Mysterious Ways commercial???!

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I saw a commercial for a local bar/restaurant and they used New Year's Day :madspit:

I thought it was illegal to use songs for commercial endoresments without consent?
 
To be honest I cant remember now...

It was for a major corporation like a car or cellphone company or something...at the time I thought, oh that's cool, U2 on TV....I was a little tired....later it hit me that that was a commercial lol

A small bar might be able to get away with it, I mean its still not allowed but a bigger corporation on a major station...I think it was TBS....

Anyone else know the commercial I'm talking about?
 
the only stuff i've really seen U2 used on are NFL commercials. there is a car commercial on right now that sounds like it uses a bastardized version of a U2 song, though i forget which one at the moment
 
Wrell I dunno, some of U2's larger catalogue might be liscensed by BMI/ASCAP for the occasional use in a commercial for a fee. I remember seeing Beautiful Day liscensed by the band for use in CBS fall lineup commercials a few years ago, and I've seen it as backing music on programs a few times such as "Without A Trace" or some other generic forensics show.

Perhaps the song circulates around the TV world once it's 'in the ether'?
Utoo said:
the only stuff i've really seen U2 used on are NFL commercials. there is a car commercial on right now that sounds like it uses a bastardized version of a U2 song, though i forget which one at the moment
Yeah it's probably not a U2 song. I know the sound you mean, though. Usually a car driving down a road, or around a test track with huge walls while some jangly, delayed guitar plays chords.
 
As a local TV commercial producer, I can tell you that using copyrighted material of any kind (including music) without permission is illegal - which isn't to say it doesn't happen, of course. And each legitimate use is strictly regulated by the language of the license (it's usually for a limited period of time in a specific market area).

From time to time, I get a client who wants to use a pop song on their commercial. You should see the expression on the face of the owner of the pizza shop when I tell 'em it's going to cost upwards of $20,000 just for the music... if we can even get the copyright-holder to agree to license it at all.

If it WAS a legitimate use of Mysterious Ways, I would think we would have heard about it from U2.com by now ("Boys License '90s Classic" or something). My money's on a sound-alike....
 
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Sometimes if you can just hear the music in commercials, and it sounds alot like a certain band, it could just be a copy basically. There is a PSP commercial that plays in Movie Theatres before movies and it sounds exactly like a Coldplay song... Coldplay or U2 or (other artist) won't liscence there music, and you don't want a rap song(since 90% of rap artists will sellout no problem - its what the music is about nowadays), you gotta copy.

el bastardos!
 
I just saw a commercial for a documentry on the Grand Canyon on PBS and they used the beginning of UTEOTW---


now its been stuck in my head for the past few days...

ah well could be worse.....;).
 
I remember ABC news used to use a rip off of Streets for a commercial of theirs. The guitar sounded like the guitar in Streets.
 
partygirl43 said:
I just saw a commercial for a documentry on the Grand Canyon on PBS and they used the beginning of UTEOTW---


now its been stuck in my head for the past few days...

ah well could be worse.....;).

PBS has also used WOWY, Streets, and One for different advertisements. Apparently U2 has something going on with PBS---maybe they'll play a U2 show for one of their pledge drives like they did with Springsteen and the Stones.
 
There is a whole industry of 'sound alikes'. Tunes specificaly written and recorded to sound virtually identical to a well known song to someone who is only paying 10% attention, but just different enough to get around copyright.

If anyone from Sydney is reading this and caught any of the tv ads promoting New Years Eve on Sydney Harbour, they were using a 'sound alike' of Beautiful Day. Different chords played in a different progression, but timed the same and using virtually identical sounding keyboard and guitar.
 
The only time I heard U2 on tv,(not including film clips) were the iPod ads, and Walk On on a promo for Alias.

Oh, and on that piece of crap show Celebrity Overhaul (Yesterday's overweight b-grade celebrities go on diets and fitness plans) I heard the intro to Do You Feel Loved while they were running on the beach.
 
Lemonfix said:


PBS has also used WOWY, Streets, and One for different advertisements. Apparently U2 has something going on with PBS---maybe they'll play a U2 show for one of their pledge drives like they did with Springsteen and the Stones.

They have (well, our local PBS has), Red Rocks. :D
 
cjboog said:
There was a movie commercial for a movie with I think Cameron Diaz a while ago that used Stuck In A Moment

Yup. "In Her Shoes." I was dragged to this by my wife, and if I recall correctly, the song appeared nowhere in the movie. Of course, I could be blocking out the whole experience...:wink:
 
Utoo said:


Yup. "In Her Shoes." I was dragged to this by my wife, and if I recall correctly, the song appeared nowhere in the movie. Of course, I could be blocking out the whole experience...:wink:

I HATE when they do this! I only learned of this policy when I sat through Ah-nold's Last Action Hero in order to hear a song from the commercial, only to find it was nowhere in the movie. :yuck:
 
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