Boots, McVitie's, Three, M&S, KFC and Beats: every song in this autumn's most searched UK adverts, who sings them, and why brands keep re-recording old hits.
These are the songs in this autumn’s biggest UK adverts, with who sings them and where to find out more. The list covers the campaigns people are searching for right now, and we will keep adding to it as new adverts land, with the Christmas adverts due from early November.
Boots’ new Give it Some Boots platform, launched on 9 September by WPP, closes on a dance to a specially re-recorded version of These Boots Are Made for Walkin’, the Nancy Sinatra hit written by Lee Hazlewood that went to number one in the UK in 1966. Boots has not named the singer of the new version. The full story, and the cast, is in our Boots advert song explainer.
The McVitie’s advert that puts Ginger Nuts, Rich Tea, Club, Jaffa Cakes and Digestives in one film for the first time is set to a reworked Together in Electric Dreams, the 1984 hit by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder. It is by adam&eveTBWA. More in our McVitie’s advert song piece.
The Three advert with the young figure skater whose costume inflates into a chicken jockey uses Dancing with Myself in the version by The Donnas. The song was first a 1980 single for Gen X, Billy Idol’s old band. The skater is Katarina Suemnig, and the rest is in our Three advert song piece.
Gillian Anderson’s autumn M&S advert, filmed in the National Art Library at the V&A, is set to Let Me Think About It by Ida Corr vs Fedde Le Grand, the 2007 dance hit. Mother London made it. See our M&S advert piece for the full credits.
The man with the guitar in KFC’s Surrender to Tender advert is Frank Watkinson, a YouTube musician known for gentle acoustic covers, singing Linger by The Cranberries in a single unbroken take. The advert is by Mother. More in our KFC advert song piece.
Beats’ advert, in which every person in a cafe is Kendall Jenner, runs to Are “Friends” Electric? by Tubeway Army, Gary Numan’s 1979 UK number one. It is by Uncommon Creative Studio and has posters in London alongside its social launch. The details are in our Beats advert piece.
Look down the list and a pattern shows. Every one of the six is a song that was first a hit before 2010, and at least two have been re-recorded or reworked rather than licensed in their original form. A familiar song does half the work of an advert in the first three seconds, and a new recording is usually cheaper and easier to clear than the famous master, while still sounding like the song everyone knows.
It also explains why these are among the most searched questions about advertising. People hear a song they half remember and want the name. For how the licensing works and what it costs, see our guide to music in advertising.
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