The music from this commercial is by The Icicles and is called La Ti Da. You can download the music for free from their web site. The music was another great find by Logan in the TV Music thread.

YouTube doesn’t have a video of them performing La Ti Da, which I like, but here’s Sugar Sweet, which has the same feel (though not quite as good, IMHO).

I lied, there actually is a recording of La Ti Da on YouTube, but it is a horrible recording. So, go to The Icicles MySpace Page to listen to La Ti Da.

At least, that’s what I’m learning from TV.

I’m still fascinated by the use of music in films and television commercials. I have been obsessed with this Dawn Landes song called Straight Lines lately which I found through a user request on the Commercial Music thread. It’s a beautiful song and her voice and the guitar just go so well with those lyrics.

Of course, I hate the ad that I found it on, which is part of AXE’s obnoxious Boom Chicka Wah Wah commercial package. Apparently, it’s been playing in movie theaters, though I haven’t seen it yet live. While poking around YouTube for live performance clips of Dawn, I found another commercial that featured Straight Lines. I present them here side by side for your entertainment. Consider how the same song can be used to promote two completely different things.

and then we have this one:

There’s an art to finding music for commercials, and whoever picked this for the AXE ad helped themsevles out. It’s a pretty awful commercial even with that song. Without the song, it would be forgettable.

I’ll leave you with another Dawn Landes video, this one an actual music video where she shows off her mad soccer skillz.

I don’t know why, but I like it.

Update: In case you like her stuff, Straight Lines isn’t available on iTunes in the U.S. yet. I contacted her label and they assured me that it’s coming soon on iTunes. If you’re in the U.K., you’re in luck. It’s available there.

I just saw a goofy Travelocity commercial during Monday Night Football that was set up as a breaking news story about the Travelocity Gnome disappearing. Mildly funny, but unremarkable except for the fact that there was a URL at the end of the commercial pointing to GnomeWatch.com. Being a sucker, I typed it in to see what was there.

I was surprised to be redirected to a Yahoo 360 page for a user called GnomeWatch. The page is highly customized with a ton of external content complete with Yahoo videos and a Flickr photostream. For those that don’t know, 360 is Yahoo’s social networking platform (similar to MySpace, ESPN Fan Profiles, etc.). Just like shows like FX’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia have done on MySpace, Yahoo and Travelocity are trying to get people to add GnomeWatch as friends, join the GnomeWatch group (hosted by Yahoo Groups) and watch videos (hosted by, naturally, Yahoo Videos).

I can’t imagine that enough people will care about the Travelocity Gnome to sign up for the Yahoo Group, but anything that gets people to realize that Yahoo even has 360 will probably be a good thing.

Of course, considering the recent rumblings coming out of Yahoo-land, perhaps this is something that should die.