My Name is Juliet!!!!!!!

YAY JULIET!!!!!  This would make the most kick-ass music for a Lego commercial and I totally wish I was this cool when I was 8 years old...or even now.

Ground Control to Tim Tebow

Always fond of a "mash-up" as a potential creative direction - we certainly never saw this twist coming.  Go Jimmy Fallon!  

Simply Brilliant - Return of the VW Ad

Not sure whether or not it's because we love dogs or Star Wars, but the combo has us loving this spot for VW.  

The force is clearly strong with VW's ad agency . . . 

Yikes . . . Lana Del Rey on SNL.

Wow, not much to say here. 

Live From Tokyo . . . It's Tommy Lee Jones!!

Ah, another gem from Japan . . . Tommy Lee in a space suit selling Boss Coffee.  In years past, hollywood actors could quietly go to Tokyo for a big payday without letting their American and European audiences know they sold out.  These days with YouTube, there is simply no where to hide and we love that!

For advertisers, the world has been their oyster for quite some time now.  It wasn't that long ago that most of us remember how hard it was to deal with record labels, publishers and hollywood actors.   Serious artists and bands would never allow their music on tv commercials for fear of being branded (pun intended) a "sell out."  These days, record labels, publishers and the like chase down advertisers and court them pushing their latest hits onto whatever and wherever possible.  "Getting syncs" has become the norm and the implosion of record sales has made advertising one of the most lucrative areas for new and old artists alike.  Hollywood is pretty much the same at this point as well.

Is this a good? bad? do we even care at this point?

Hmmm, hard to answer, but its great for advertising . . . My two cents . . . it's about being tastful.  When artists throw their music up against anything - it hurts all of us (and wastes money for their clients).  It's bad for the artist and bad for the brand.  When brands select music for the right reasons, it really works and everyone wins.

An example of bad taste in a selecting music/artist for a television commercial that had people scratching their heads:

An example of good taste in a selecting music/artist for a television commercial that had people saying "badass": 

Canon, Ron Howard, Floating Dogs & Diamonds

Love this.  I saw this in a movie theater on the big screen and I thought how well done it was.  The visuals are so original and unlike any Canon commercial (or any other spot) I have seen for that matter.  The minimal score of simple repetitive piano with string highlights is just enough to create the intrigue.  The swells and pizzicato strings move it along and then it goes back to where it begins.  Classic approach to scoring this and has that Danny Elfman-esque / Clint Mansell-ish vibe.  So well done.