Why are songs used in commercials always really good?

Most of the songs you are listening to are from the good music of the 70s.

This just goes to prove my point…..all the good new songwriters either are deaf or have broken fingers.

Nothing really good has come down the highway in music, since the latter part of the 80s.

Because marketing departments rarely have as their aim to make people go “damn, I wish I didn’t have to hear that song.” Catchy songs get stuck in your head, so they pick ones that are catchy, and then when that tune pops into your head later you might think of the product.

And some of the New Order songs used in a few commercials lately were from the late eighties and nineties.

Well it’s not like they’re going to put bad or un-catchy songs on commercials where they’re trying to sell you something!

It you wer planning on spending millions of dollars on an ad campaign for yo8ur new widget would you pick something like Tiny Tim singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips?

Why are songs used in commercials always really good?
False. I have yet to see a commercial that has a Joy Division song in it. 10001001001000

Because they want you to remember the commericial, and therefore the product and if you think the song is cool, then you might think the product is better than you would have thought it was, if you just saw the product without the cool song

Some of my faves:

Bohemian Like You (used in a car commercial, although I don’t recall the car) here

A commercial advertising Flat Earth Chips with a song called Sunshine by Orba Squara

Moby’s Porcelain was also used in a car commercial (for what brand I don’t recall)

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros doing this song for a Ford Fiesta commercial.

Or this song
You know, I recently saw a commercial that had an excerpt from a Black Angels song. I literally screamed “WHAT THE FUCK”. Totally ruining my indie cred.

I have picked up a lot of songs from commercials. They do tend to be good. I agree with the suggestions above, that it is important for advertising that they choose something catchy and enjoyable to hear.
I recently heard one of my favorite songs in a commercial for Maybelline, and I about fell off of my couch.

Come to think of it, some commercials have music that’s not so great. Maybe this company is trying to let you know their product is a scam.

Not!........I never sing them, or hummmm along! How ridiculous! Cheesy, not cool! A waste of time!........I hate commercials. Find something else to do!!!!!

The writers get the big bucks for it. If they don’t, they are fired.

Because they find the best thirty seconds of the song to use. If you find a full version and listen to it, it’s not unlikely to end up being crap.

My mom used to love the Coke songs. She put This is It on her tape cassette.

@Michael_Huntington There’s actually 2 songs with Black Angels songs in them. I don’t like it much, but I actually discovered that band through the Fable III commercial, so I’m not entirely complaining.

I find this to be untrue. There are very few “ad” songs that I like. Usually, if I like a song, I end up finding out it is actually a real song from a real singer/band that I just never heard of until the commercial.
But, yeah, most songs that were made only for the commercials tend to cause finger exhaustion whilst trying to rappidly push the volume button on my remote.