If you’re going to pull in the views and drive home the message, dazzling visuals, celebrity cameos, and witty punchlines will only take you so far. Memorable music production for advertising has the power to transport an audience into the world that the product is creating for that brief moment in time, creating something so unique and original that it cuts through all the noise filters our brains have installed and latches on to that hard-to-find, impossible-to-define earworm that somehow allows us to remember precisely what we were watching and what chair we were sitting in the first time we heard the Hilltop Seekers belt out “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”.
But what about those ad soundtracks that fly under the radar? The ones that caught our attention the first time we saw them and never got the big play that seems reserved for annoying catch phrases and recycled celebrities from the 1990s dressed up as their most famous characters (looking at you Dr. Evil and Cable Guy). We’ve all got our favorites, and now it’s time to recognize some of the very best underrated ad soundtracks of all time.
The Sound of Sound
You don’t have to work for a jingle house to appreciate the huge role sound effects play in any composite piece of advertising, but this remarkably simplistic effort from SoundSnap, a royalty-free warehouse of sound effects is pure heaven for people in the industry. Not wanting to diminish its own prowess with anything as unseemly as a voiceover, the commercial uses captions to inform you of the most obvious fact in the world, that “This is an ad for the sound effects studio SoundSnap.
Glasses
Of all the emotions great ad soundtracks can generate in a narrow window of 30 seconds, you wouldn’t think “dread” would rank very high on the list of the most impressive accomplishments. But that’s exactly what this extremely effective retro piece put out by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD Canada) creates. The sounds that are lacking are almost as visceral as the effects we do hear as a car races along the freeway at night. The only sound is the slow, rhythmic clink of empty glasses piling up against each other. The clink of glass on glass begins to resemble a ticking clock, or more accurately, a ticking time bomb that is leading the driver towards the most dangerous result.
The screeching brake sfx at the end is rather lacking in quality, but the overall execution of this soundtrack makes it barely noticeable. This is a masterful use of minimalism where more sound is expected.
My Dad | Hersheys
Nothing gets you noticed by the American Idol judges faster than rearranging branded music in a new format – acoustic always does the trick.
This 2016 commercial for Hershey’s chocolate about a too-busy-to-hang-out work from home dad and his daughter who is bound and determined to break him away from the video call for some quality times doubles down on that idea.
The soulful piano notes at the beginning don’t give away too early that the track in question is a rearrangement of Steve Winwood’s light rock mid-80s classic “Higher Love”. Only as our young protagonist realizes drastic action is needed to rescue her father do we recognize the signature opening lyrics “Think about it, there must be a higher love.”
The commercial is a bit eerie in its essence as the daughter produces a photo-realistic cardboard cutout of her dad to replace him on a conference call; strikingly similar to the cutouts of fans that populated sports arenas four years later during the COVID-19 pandemic. The song turns into a duet – the young female lead joined by an older man on chorus harmonies. The older man? Steve Winwood himself, playing backup to his own daughter, Lilly, who was all of 20 years old when the commercial’s soundtrack was recorded.
A Clydesdale’s Journey
It seems fairly likely that Budweiser had no idea what to expect when it hired Chinese director Chloe Zhao to direct its ad for the 2022 Super Bowl. Her style, most notable in the Oscar-winning film “Nomadland”. Considering the beer company’s famous Clydesdales have played football (complete with a zebra referee) and spoofed the end of Prohibition over the years, it didn’t seem like the ideal match of styles.
What it got was a stunning mix of American iconography with a soundtrack of blustery winter days on the High Plains, the pounding hooves of the noble steed interrupted by a tangle in barbed wire, cries of pain from the equine that tug on the heart strings, rolling thunder that symbolizes the dark clouds that have darkened our way forward for the past few years, and then a stunning version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” on electric guitar that would turn even Jimi Hendrix’s head. As the Clydesdale regains its strength – with timely encouragement from a proud pooch associate, the anthem kicks into high gear. By the time Zhao’s message, “In the home of the brave, down never means out,” flashes across the screen, we were ready to pound a six pack, raise the flag, and kick COVID’s ass for good.
A Star Wars Experience for All
Nothing says branded music and effects like Star Wars – from John Williams’ countless classic motifs to the library of incredible sound effects that have made designer Ben Burtt, who looks quite like a real-life C3PO, into a household name for generations of fans.
This Filipino telecommunications ad, ostensibly produced to promote the final saga film “The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019, kicks off with a peppy beat as two kids pedal across towns on their bikes in a full Star Wars Christmas time frenzy. We spy BB8 in the wreath, Chewbacca on the mantle, and a makeshift X-WIng pilot suit to boot.
As the two wander across town in an odd scavenger hunt, we get the sort of montage that would make the A-Team proud: a squeaking chair, the whine of tape being pulled for a craft, and the beeps of cell phones strung on a wire. The end result? A complete DIY movie theater for a young female friend to watch the movie, complete with 4D special effects – smells, textures, lights, and atmosphere. As the film’s iconic imagery – the Millennium Falcon roaring into hyperspace and Kylo Ren and Rey battling in the middle of a raging sea – the music soars to match it, epic strings and a chorus to boot. When the movie ends, the pair of designers ask their friend what she thought. Covered in glitter with her eyes wide open, she replies in sign language that she loves it and gives it a standing ovation without ever hearing a thing.