Top 10 car commercial earworms

Contrary to English playwright William Congreve's oft-misquoted line, music doesn't always soothe the savage breast.

Pop songs featured in car commercials are often up-tempo, loud and catchy. The auditory cortex gets pounded by the rhythm and melody, rhythm and melody [Ed: sorry, I just had a Big Audio Dynamite moment] while the bright and colourful images stimulate the visual cortex.

Just for fun we've compiled a list of TV commercials we would watch a dozen times over, rather than sit through one episode of 'The Real Housewives of Melbourne'.

Body Rockers 'I like the way you move'
The history of the BMW 3 Series through to the E90 generation was revealed with each generation morphing into the next as the car circulates the track – and all the while the recognisable and fitting dance track plays on.

New Order 'Slow Jam'
Filmed in New Zealand's South Island for the introduction of the BA-series Falcon in 2002, the commercial remains arguably one of Ford Australia's finest creative moments on the small screen. UK band New Order had made its comeback with the album 'Get Ready' one year earlier and 'Slow Jam' was the right sort of brash, guitar-laden pop to kick along the new Falcon.

Jet 'Rip it up'
Melbourne band Jet provided the strident backing for an evocative commercial promoting the VE Ute. Partly a history of Holden's utes, partly an exploration of Australia's socio-economic evolution – in the migratory shift from rural towns to outer suburbs during the post-war years – the commercial celebrated everything we know about Aussie life... except for all the Holden utes built between the HQ and the VU.

Kingswood 'Go your own way'
Local band Kingswood covered a Fleetwood Mac favourite from the 1970s to signal a change of brand direction for Isuzu Ute, targeting recreational and family buyers with its D-MAX and MU-X models.

Potbelleez 'Don't hold back'
Dance floor favourite cut through around the time the iconic American off-road brand was introducing the important new WK generation of Grand Cherokee to Australia.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 'The Message'
Suburban dad lives out his rapper fantasy – albeit in a Kia Sportage rather than a Cadillac Escalade or Lincoln Navigator. The ad featured members of the band on screen, fading back into the shadow of harsh reality when the young mum asks whether dad remembered to buy some nappies.

Ray Charles, 'Come Rain or Come Shine'
This amusing commercial featured the vocals of R&B legend Ray Charles to introduce the Range Rover Evoque to Australia. The song highlights the Evoque's go-anywhere ability, while the visuals comedically focus on its social-climbing acceptability.

Eagle Eye Cherry 'Are you still having fun'
Back in 2000 Mercedes-Benz produced this commercial for the C-Class with backing from Swedish singer Eagle Eye Cherry. Various actors portrayed middle-aged, bling-wearing yuppies we think were Benz's target buyer type at the time.

New Radicals 'You get what you give'
The one-hit wonder promoted as a rant against corporate culture almost succeeded in arousing interest in Mitsubishi's local product range. An alternative version of the commercial showed a US-market Eclipse on local roads in one brief scene.

Player 'Baby come back'
Cheesy soft-rock ballad from the late 1970s accompanies the 'tale' of a HiLux owner losing the most important thing in his life. In the denouement, the HiLux washed up on a beach is reunited with the negligent owner, who promptly recovers from the depths of depression.

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