Ever watch TV and see a car commercial accompanied by a catchy tune but it’s over before you can say, “Was that really just a Grizzly Bear song?” You’ve just witnessed a drive-by placement. During the Super Bowl, the car commercials featured a plethora of Indie artists and millions of viewers questioned their placements. Why put Indie songs on mainstream TV to promote cars? But this trend has been growing for years now.
The following commercials, along with many others, represent this long-standing phenomenon — the drive-by placement. After a few successful test placements, car advertisers realized that they could use all of the emotion evoked by an awesome song to give the product (cars) the personality they lack. To compensate for their hard, steel machinery, these companies use happy, evocative music. For this reason, car ads are becoming yet another avenue to showcase new music.
