There are so many times when I’ve listened to the radio in the car and realized that the song playing isn’t for an expected commercial but an actual song. By an actual band. For an actual album. Not hocking a product. I’m pretty dumb to begin with but these moments always make me feel even worse. “Of course this is a real song,” I think to myself and then realize how brainwashed I’ve been by advertising–or pop culture, in general.
Or sometimes it’s the other way around. Not the part where I feel less dumb, but when I recognize a song in a commercial and then from then on, every time I hear it, I think of the product, company or movie trailer instead of the band. And how brainwashed is that? Even if that movie is long gone or the advertising campaign has been over for decades, I still think of what I could have bought with that song instead of the music itself.
Seeing as how it’s the weekend, I decided to compile my own list of songs that have been ruined by advertising (in one form or another). Feel free to add your own!
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