There was a time when using rock music in advertising campaigns was unheard of. The artists considered such a move a sell-out, and would never allow their songs to be associated with a commercial
product or service. But things have changed so much that now marketers are hard-pressed to find songs for campaigns that haven't already been used. As a result, marketers and their agencies now find
themselves scrambling to find popular hit songs to use in their commercials. "A lot of the big, known songs and baby-boomer hits that we have grown up with have been used," says Mike Boris, a music
producer at ad agency McCann Erickson. Some well-known examples include Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" for General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet trucks and Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" for GM's Cadillac. One
of the first ever rock songs to be used in an ad was Carly Simon's "Anticipation," in a spot for Heinz ketchup. That one opened the floodgates, and now it's so common to use rock songs in ads that
even the Rolling Stones--the original bad boys of rock--let Microsoft Corp. use their tune "Start Me Up" in a campaign to promote Windows in 1995.
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