Suspiciously Similar Song/Advertising

United Way has a PSA with music that sounds a lot like "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay.
A commercial for gold coins has a recognizable parody of Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold" (Tuco in the graveyard), while yelling the word "GOLD!" repeatedly.
Frito-Lay created a soundalike for Tom Waits' "Step Right Up" as part of a Doritos marketing campaign. It was close enough that Tom Waits called his lawyer, and ended up making more money in damages than he'd made from all the albums he sold up to that point.
For some reason, the theme from the Old Spice commercials opens with two bars of "Scotland the Brave" and then goes off in a completely different direction.
There is an American Express ad with a backing track that sounded suspiciously like ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky".
Commercials for proactiv.com, which sells facial cleansers, have a song in the background that sounds suspiciously like Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is".
The Danup ad in Mexico features a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Good Vibrations" from the Beach Boys.
- As do those Aussie commercials for the Good Guys.
A chicken noodle soup commercial included a song which has a chorus very similar to the part of Green Day's "American Idiot".
- Speaking of "American Idiot", a Gmail video featuring viewers' submissions...
The music used in a local Public Service Announcement about water conservation sounds exactly like The Monkees "Daydream Believer". They get around it by having voices sing a wordless riff every once in a while that presumably counts as an original melody, but if you know the lyrics you can sing along with the music without missing a beat at all. The structure and chords are identical.
Here's an interesting one: Listen to E.S. Posthumus's song "Pompeii", used in quite a few movie trailers. Then listen to Pfeifer Broz' "DNA Reaction", a song made especially for movie trailers -- particularly the latter half.
- And then listen to Immediate Music's "Avenger".
Now watch this: here's He's A Pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean...
- And here's Racketeers by Two Steps From Hell...
- ...and X-Ray Dog with their Pirates' Curse. Seriously, both those companies apparently thought that sooner or later someone's gonna make a pirate movie and will need a recognizable music for the trailer licensed quickly.
There is a Kraft Dinner ad with a teen listening to an MP3 player. The player is playing the first few notes from "American Woman" by the Guess Who over and over again.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones sued Pizza Hut over a commercial that used an instrumental backing that was suspiciously similar to "The Impression That I Get" at the height of the song's popularity.
A commercial series from Fido has a light and breezy background piece that sounds strikingly similar to Chrono Trigger's "Guardia Millenial Fair".
A Commercial for Barbie dolls uses a song that's blatantly based off Aqua's "Barbie Girl".
- Several, some of which keep the "Come on Barbie/Let's go party" part. It's ironic that a song they initially sued over now figures heavily in their advertising.
At least in Sweden, this was a common practice in the mid-to-late 90's. In 1995, a pasta commercial featured a score very similar to Scatman John's "Scatman", as well as visuals in the style of the music video. One year later, an ad for a sailing company used a Suspiciously Similar Song to Peter André's "Mysterious Girl". Finally, the chorus of Doctor Bombay's "Calcutta (Taxi, Taxi, Taxi)" (1998) became the "100 000, Uppsala Taxi" radio jingle in 2000 or so (and remained in use for many years, to the point where most people had probably forgotten the source of inspiration).
The music in the notorious "You Wouldn't Steal A Handbag" anti-piracy bumper is a ripoff of "No Man Army" by The Prodigy. Ironically.
NBC is airing a romantic comedy film it made or Hollywood made. Time to drag out the wacky Suspiciously Similar Song to Katrina & the Waves's "Walking on Sunshine" with the most obvious key change in history to promote said film. Very common in the 1990s.
At the Apple Computer 1984 shareholders meeting, they played a corporate video, "We Are Apple", which rips off the song "What a Feeling", and also includes the lyrics "What a Feeling" in the song itself!
- This is incredibly common for company instructional or inspirational videos. Circa 1999, KFC employees were subject to Colonel Sanders voiced by Randy Quaid getting down to "Here Comes the Colonel!" (to the tune of "I've Got the Power!" by Snap!) before a video lecture about food safety.
An ad for the Australian version of the dating site eHarmony has a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Where Is The Love?" playing behind it.
An ad for Sandals Resorts used a Suspiciously Similar Song to "I Gotta Feeling".
- However, if this was the ad in question, it was more of a Sampled Up version of that and "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"
  - Ironically, The Black Eyed Peas actually did end up doing a song that sampled said song.
An Air Force Reserve ad aired during the 2010 Super Bowl used an instrumental that was noticeably similar to The White Stripes "Fell In Love With A Girl".
The trailer for the film Army of Darkness uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to Metallica's Sad But True, Holier than Thou, and Orion.
A Best Buy commercial had a song with the lyrics "I'm free, I'm free, not just a puppet on a string, no ties to anything", which was suspiciously similar to the Cowsills' "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things".
One Dodge commercial used a guitar song that sounded suspiciously similar to "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon.
One pawn shop ad closely parodies Run DMC's "King Of Rock" as "King Of Gold" - the chief difference being a slightly altered guitar riff.
This Specsavers ad features popular UK kids' character Postman Pat. However, the music in the background isn't actually the original theme everyone knows- and if one listens it's melodically not that similar. However, in the background of a short ad, the style is similar enough that most people probably won't notice- which was probably the intention and still qualifies it for this trope.
An ad for Hidden Valley Ranch uses a mostly instrumental (save for some wordless vocals) Suspiciously Similar Song to The Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday".
The trailer for Guvyer II: Dark Hero has a Suspiciously Similar Song to Trevor Jones's score to The Last Of The Mohicans.
A commercial by T-mobile uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" in the background. It's on the piano, and just a few notes are changed here and there.
The actual brand escapes memory, but one auto maker has a commercial which uses a soft arrangement of Tool's "Vicarious".
An ad for Ready Brek had a Suspiciously Similar Song to Loituma playing in the background.
A post-Billy Mays OxiClean ad (featuring Anthony "Sully" Sullivan) plays a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benetar through the spot.
Although Adult Swim's Flash game Robot Unicorn Attack is infamous for using "Always" by Erasure, the TV commercial for the iPhone port plays only the song's chords.
This Yahoo Mail's World's Greatest Dad commercial is supiciously similar to A-Punk by Vampire Weekend.
This ad announcing the release of "V" is for Vengeance uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to "ABC" by The Jackson 5.
In this trailer for Franklyn, listen to the music from 0:49 onwards. Now listen to "In the House in a Heartbeat" from Twenty Eight Weeks Later. They are almost, but not quite, identical.
The song in the Quizno's Spongmonkies commercial sounds similar to "Do You Love Me" by The Contours.
- It was actually a rewrite of "We Love The Moon" from the previous Spongmonkies video.
This Audi trailer has been noted as being suspiciously similar to Chrysler's Imported from Detroit Super Bowl ad, right down to the Suspiciously Similar Song to Eminem's "Lose Yourself".
There's a Lowe's commercial about paint which has a Suspiciously Similar Song "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon.
This UK advert for Andrex toilet tissue opens with what seems to be a Suspiciously Similar Song of "Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce.
The Victoria Bitter ads in Australia used a Suspiciously Similar Song to the theme from The Magnificent Seven.
Fricker's restaurant in Cincinnati is using a Suspiciously Similar Song to Back In Black in their radio ads.
One Dish TV ad featured a Suspiciously Similar Song to "Bohemian Like You" by The Dandy Warhols.
There's a commercial for McDonald's that features kids moving their Chicken Mc Nuggets along like an assembly line, that uses a Suspiciously Similar Song to Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse B".
This recruiting ad for the U.S. Navy is clearly capitalizing on the success of Top Gun, complete with a painfully obvious ripoff of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone."
Is it just me, or does the theme in Xfinity's On Demand sound oddly similar to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "American Girl"?

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