What you will find in the article:
- Film music evokes emotions and memories instantly.
- Advertising often uses original soundtracks or sound-alike music.
- Licensing film music can be complex and costly.
- Successful films attract large audiences, boosting soundtrack popularity.
- Examples include brands like Dior and Volkswagen using iconic scores.
Film can draw viewers in not only through imagery, but also through music. While the image shows what is happening on screen, the music tells the audience how to feel. That is why soundtracks are an inseparable part of film storytelling – they can create tension, emotion, a sense of triumph or nostalgia, often before a character has even spoken a single line. And for the same reason, the advertising industry also makes use of this powerful tool. From a marketing communications perspective, film music is an exceptionally strong emotional stimulus. In viewers’ memories, it is often firmly associated with specific scenes, characters and emotions experienced while watching a film. When heard again, it therefore does more than provide an aesthetic experience – it can instantly reactivate the entire emotional context of the original film.
Another reason to use a film soundtrack is the sheer reach of cinema. Successful films are seen by tens or even hundreds of millions of people in cinemas around the world, with audiences growing further once the films reach streaming platforms or television. The famous Bond film Skyfall, for example, grossed more than USD 1.1 billion. Estimates suggest that more than one hundred million cinema tickets were sold worldwide.
Licensing a Soundtrack Is Not Easy
The way advertising creatives can work with film music depends on licensing. There are several ways film music can be used in advertising. One option is licensing original film music – using the original composition written for a particular film. This approach is more expensive and legally more complex, but at the same time it allows a brand to tap into the emotions and associations that audiences have already built around the film.
In advertising practice, a second approach is frequently used – so-called sound-alike music. This is newly composed or newly recorded music deliberately designed to resemble a well-known film soundtrack without infringing copyright or using the original recording. In these cases, composers work with similar instrumentation, harmonies, tempo, rhythm or methods of musical build-up in order to evoke emotions comparable to those created by the familiar film score. An advertisement can therefore evoke the atmosphere of a spy thriller, an epic fantasy film or a romantic drama without having to license the original soundtrack.
Adagio in D Minor from Sunshine
Music from Sunshine is an example of the first category. The famous soundtrack piece Adagio in D Minor was composed by John Murphy. A remastered version of the original recording appeared in a commercial for Dior J'adore, which featured Charlize Theron alongside the music.
Video: Dior - J'Adore
The same soundtrack was also used by Nike in its commercial for Canadian audiences titled “All Ice is Home Ice”:
Video: Nike Canada: All Ice is Home Ice
Samsung also harnessed the power of the soundtrack from Sunshine in its breathtaking “King of TV City” commercial. The advertisement for a “TV you can control” features a man standing in the middle of a deserted metropolis, controlling everything happening around him with his voice and gestures. Spectacular scenes unfold before his eyes, symbolising the diversity of television content – herds of wild wildebeest charge through the streets, aliens invade the city, a dinosaur bursts through a building and a teddy bear rides past on a bicycle. Yet the man remains completely calm, controlling this chaotic world with a single hand movement or voice command. At the end of the commercial, he even stops a massive fireball hurtling through the city with the single word “Pause!”. A contrasting peaceful scene follows: he is sitting at home on the sofa, controlling the television screen with the same simple gesture.
Video: Samsung – King of TV City
Lux Aeterna from Requiem for a Dream
The Lux Aeterna soundtrack from the 2000 film Requiem for a Dream also found its way into advertising. Molson Canadian incorporated it into its “Made From Canada” campaign. The commercial presents Canada as a country of extraordinary natural beauty, cultural diversity and strong national spirit. It has no conventional plot, functioning more like an audiovisual poem. Rather than relying on humour or a storyline, it is driven primarily by the music – along with powerful symbols designed to evoke a sense of belonging and national pride.
Video: Molson Canadian – Made From Canada
Canon also used the original licensed soundtrack, composed by Clint Mansell and performed by the Kronos Quartet, in a commercial promoting its PowerShot product range.
Volkswagen, meanwhile, opted for The Imperial March, composed for The Empire Strikes Back from the Star Wars series, in its “The Force” campaign. In the commercial, a child dressed as Darth Vader walks around the house attempting to use the dark side of the Force on everything from the family dog to the new Passat parked in the driveway.
Video: Volkswagen Passat 2011 - Commercial: The Force
The original The Imperial March soundtrack by John Williams is also used by Lego in its “Star Wars Playset” commercial.
The second group of advertisements – those merely inspired by film soundtracks – is equally interesting. Viewers often get the impression that they are hearing a familiar movie theme, when in fact it may be an entirely new composition created solely to evoke a similar atmosphere. In this case, marketers have chosen the easier route: they invest in creating a piece of music that sounds like a famous film soundtrack, even though using the original might technically be simpler. The reason is straightforward: it is cheaper and avoids complicated negotiations with copyright holders. One of the brands to take this approach is BMW. Its “Mission to Drive” campaign uses music based on the Mission: Impossible theme, unmistakably referencing the famous spy franchise.
Video: BMW – Mission to Drive (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol)
Coca-Cola, meanwhile, uses a Bond-style motif in its 2012 “Unlock the 007” campaign.
Video: Coca-Cola – Unlock the 007
Famous Musical Works in Film
Alongside original film soundtracks and music inspired by them, there is a third category of compositions frequently used in advertising. These are musical works that were not originally created for film, but which acquired a new meaning through their prominent use on screen and have become almost inseparably associated with a particular film.
Although they are not original film scores, audiences often automatically associate such works with a particular movie and with the emotions they experienced while watching it. In some cases, the public even comes to think of the composition primarily as “music from the film”, despite the fact that it may have been written decades earlier as an independent concert work.
A typical example is Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra, composed as early as 1896 but achieving worldwide popularity and iconic status largely thanks to the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Since then, the composition has become a symbol of monumental technological progress. It appeared, for example, in the “Pooface” commercial for Pampers:
Video: Pampers – Pooface
Another typical example is O Fortuna from the scenic cantata Carmina Burana, composed by German composer Carl Orff in 1935–1936. It is recognised around the world, even by people with little interest in classical music, thanks in part to the film Excalibur, which significantly boosted its fame. Since then, the composition has also appeared in film trailers and advertisements. One of the best-known campaigns to use the piece is a commercial for Old Spice.
Video: Old Spice – The Mark of A Man
Not All Music Is Created Equal
A television commercial usually has only a few seconds to capture viewers’ attention, trigger an emotion and build a positive relationship with the brand. Music does not function merely as an audio backdrop – research has consistently shown that it significantly influences advertising recall, emotional impact and overall brand perception. Advertisements with a strong musical component generate a higher level of emotional response than commercials without music, especially when the music supports the story and matches its atmosphere.
That is precisely why film music ranks among the most effective musical tools available to advertising creatives. Iconic film themes are deeply connected with stories, characters and emotions that millions of viewers around the world have absorbed over the years. Yet creatives do not always use the original soundtrack. They often work with music merely inspired by familiar film themes or with compositional techniques reminiscent of the distinctive style of a particular film or composer. Such music can create a similar atmosphere and evoke comparable associations without requiring a licence for the original film recording. Advertising creatives therefore harness the power of film music not only through the compositions themselves, but also through their musical language, which has meanwhile become part of our collective cultural memory.