Bruce and I were talking the other day about great songs in commericals, and he sent me a link to this new Nike spot that uses the song “Ali In The Jungle” by the British band “The Hours”.

Human Chain from NikeSportswear on Vimeo.

This is a beautiful spot to begin with, but the song is what pushes it over the top to become a truly great ad.  The song gives the spot a level of emotion and meaning, with the line “Everybody gets knocked down, how quick are you going to get up?” repeated throughout.  It’s as if the song was written for this campaign…but it wasn’t.  That means someone brilliantly chose this song to help bring the message of the ad to life(or they got lucky and just stumbled upon the song and had a “Eureka!” moment.  Either way, it’s a great example of how music and image can combine successfully to stimulate an emotional response to the product/service being advertised. (Note: Bruce has a great white paper on the use of emotion to change behavior, available to download here.)

If the Nike “Human Chain” spot is an example of how to effectively use music in advertising, then the Radio Shack(oops, I’m sorry, “The Shack”) “Chemist” spot is an example of when music and message just don’t seem to work, and the ad ends up failing.

Seriously.  Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science”?  And what’s with the cheap, Monty Python-esque animation?  And what was it you were actually advertising?  Oh, the fact that you sell phones…and that you…wait for it…have it down to a science! LOL! Like so many ads, by trying to be clever, they end up totally confusing me, and I most likely won’t remember what it was they were trying to sell…which is kind of the point of advertising…isn’t it?  Compare it to the Nike ad, where the song and the visuals tell you right away what it’s about, and they keep you engaged right to the end. Maybe “The Shack” (speaking of terrible rebranding) should’ve tracked down Kelly LeBrock…or at least Anthony Michael Hall to do an endorsement.