It’s hard to remember now, especially when Weird Al Yankovic writes lyrics about buying fanny packs at the Gap, but there was a brief moment in time when the relatively conservative fashion at the Gap was ahead of the curve. I know this because in high school, many of us mercilessly taunted everything about the Gap—the clothes, the greeters, the commercials—and what do high school students do better than pissing in the face of what’s popular? The most recent trend of putting real songs in your commercials started with the likes of Volkswagen, Apple and the Gap (though none of those infamous campaigns will ever compare to the bizarre vision of Grace Jones shilling for Citroen). On the one hand, it means the time-honoured tradition of the commercial jingle is all but dead. As someone who has enjoyed compilations of American and German jingles from the golden age of television, I feel somewhat qualified to say this is a great loss. “Head On, apply directly to the forehead” might be forever lodged in your memory, but I’ll bet you won’t look too fondly on it twenty years from now. On the other hand, some commercials put relatively unknown artists on the map. The discussion about whether indie artists in commercials are selling out seems to be mostly old hat now, with commerce winning out over an arguably old-school perception of artistic integrity.

Of course, not all the songs ad producers pick are unknown quantities. In fact, most of the songs people remember years later aren’t the unknown songs that break out, but rather older songs by road-tested artists. Some of them are more obscure than others—everyone can spot, say, the Rolling Stones a mile away, but Nick Drake’s contribution to a Volkswagen commercial snuck up on people, leading to a resurgence of interest in what was a relatively low-profile artist. Somewhere in between lies Bill Withers. Coming back to the Gap, one of the best commercials they put together was a one-off spot called “Khaki Soul,” featuring “Lovely Day.” Withers is one of those artists whose songs are more famous than he is. Covered, sampled and played over numerous commercials, Withers’ music has remained just outside the spotlight for years, and an entire generation of people—including me, once upon a time—now know songs like “Just The Two Of Us” and “Lean On Me” without even knowing the name Bill Withers.

An addendum: in the late 80s, “Lovely Day” was used in a British television commercial (showing that this sort of thing has been happening for years, though not in nearly the same numbers as now it seems). To capitalize on the song’s second life, a remix was released, and Withers appeared on Top Of The Pops to promote the new release. Maybe not the best of ideas.