Commercials with carefully edited songs

Microsoft, with the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up". Shortly after the "start me up (x3) and never stop" line comes "You make a grown man cry! (x3)". Not to mention, of course, the line before the song fades out "You make a dead man come." (props to Sylvar for pointing the latter out) There is much truth there in reality. For obvious reasons, the offending phrases were removed in the Win95 marketing assault.

Another example is a recent Toyota commercial with the song "Feeling All Right / Not Feeling Too Good Myself". Need I say more?

Anyone else with more sightings?

There's the Nissan commercial with the old Who hit "Won't Get Fooled Again." None of the vocals are actually used, but some lyrics that immediately come to mind are:

"Here comes the new boss
Same as the old boss"
This doesn't exactly inspire confidence that the new model will be any better than the older ones; and

"I get down on my knees and pray
That I won't get fooled again!
This one's not too comforting to current or former Nissan owners looking to buy a brand new one.

Then there's a Target ad that I saw while watching the 2001 Grammy Awards. It uses Devo's "It's a Beautiful World" to sell cleaning supplies (Windex, toilet paper, and diapers) and uses the lyrics of the chorus to great effect:
"It's a beautiful world ... for you"
Knowing the song as well as I do rather spoils the intent of the ad. I always have to add the line they cut out of the song
"....But not for me.

I see you baby, shakin' that ass

Replaced with the more tasteful:

I see you baby, shakin' that thing

Not only is this obviously annoying to anyone who has heard the correct rendition, but it feels obviously edited, like they had to "make room" for 'thing' over the shorter 'ass'. Yuck.

Another cool one being aired recently is for a Nissan car, which uses Portishead's Numb, and enthuses about the 'intelligence' inherent in the vehicle. Strangely it loops before hitting the first lines: "I'm ever so lost / I can't find my way..."

"I call that a bargain, the best I ever had....the best I ever had!"

but somehow they omit the part before that says...

"I'd pay any price just to get you
I'd work all my life and I will
To win you I'd stand naked, stoned and stabbed..."

hmm...the word "bargain" in the song is not meant literally. It's a love song (or a song about God, depending on whose side your on) about going through hell to get something. Not a message you want to send to car buyers.

And, wow, I just heard a Clarinex commercial with yet another Who tune...the overture from Tommy. Maybe they should just use songs that were meant to be in commercials, like The Who Sell Out. hmm.

Also, I saw "Baba O'Riley" in a Ralph Lauren Polo commercial.

I guess Pete has to pay his son's college tuition somehow...
I mean, it's not like he has millions of dollars already...

also see: Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra, used in a Volkswagen commercial. But that's just kinda fancy, I think.

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
Ooh, they're red, white and blue.

Strange though, they left the next two lines out of the commercial:

And when the band plays "Hail to the chief",
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord,

What was once an anti-patriotic anthem, is now a capitalist jingle, cashing in on the wave of patriotism currently sweeping the country. Just another example of corporate America twisting the meaning of a song to suit their needs.

A recent advert for Pizza Hut (or 'The Pizza Hut', as your granddaddy might say) emphasised the way one could 'twist' pieces of the crust off to eat.

For the backing music, they used 'Twisting' by They Might Be Giants, making good use of the lyrics:

She wants to see you again/
Twisting, Twisting ...

But sort of fading out / talking over the lyrics:

... in the wind.

The original song is one of those that satirise a formulaic type of song by sounding just like it (to show how easy the formula is to apply), but having the lyrics subvert the expectations raised by the sound¹. It is very satisfying to see dumb-ass ad execs falling for the form and ignoring the content.

No, wait - maybe it was depressing to see something so clever emasculated and used for something so crass.

No, wait - I love Pizza Hut, and They Might Be Giants. So I guess I'm quite happy with the whole affair.