What about the Nike Beatles "Revolution" ad? That was a huge deal at the time that it came out because.(1) It was the actual Beatles track.(2) The surviving Beatles were against it.(3) It came out because Michael Jackson, owning the pub rights, gave it the okay.If I recall, what was the really egregious thing was that the actual track was used, and Jackson & Nike thought because he owned the publishing rights to the song, that he could use a recording song without asking original artists’ permission. Well, that ain’t the case.So what did we learn?(1) Michael Jackson was more of a cold, calculating businessman than the public had previously thought of him…just maybe not a very good one.(2) The Beatles were not going to have their songs played in commercials…at least, not their versions (see "Getting Better", etc. a few years later).(3) "Hey Jude"/"Revolution" has got to be one of the f’n best singles ever.

Great points, Matthew.  I had forgotten about that one.

Moby selling every song from Play to multiple advertisers as a means of promoting the album: this is the moment when it became socially acceptable to licence songs for advertising (and use commercials as the 21st century MTV). Future generations of music listeners will never know a time when rock music actually resisted corporate influence…

Hmm… Does the Fleetwood Mac reunion at the Democratic National Convention fit in anywhere here? Sure, it was kind of a good cause, but man, it felt tacky.

Hey, that reunion set a precedent.  I hear the Village People will be getting back together if John Edwards gets elected.

I guess it would depend if the band got paid for their time, or donated their time.  To me, that makes a pretty big difference.  That being said, I can’t imagine them not getting paid handsomely.

Bob Dylan. Victoria’s Secret.

It takes a lot to laugh, it took just this to cry.

Bob Dylan saying, about Alicia Keys, "There ain’t nothin’ bout that girl I don’t like", is creepy enough. Here’s a topic for the next Theme Time Radio program: How to create truly awkward silences.

I don’t have any examples, but I remember an "SNL" commercial parody from the spring of ’87, right after the Nike "Revolution" ads started airing, in which Jon Lovitz as David Crosby advertised an album called "Sold Out Gold," with songs like the Rolling Stones’ "Hey You! Leggo My Eggo!" (to the tune of "Get Off of My Cloud") and Iron Butterfly’s "In a Time Magazine" (to the tune of "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida").  I wish I could remember more of the songs that were used; I used to watch that sketch on one of my dad’s videotapes quite a bit.

The Village People broke up?