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Rounding out DTS’s coverage of Hamsterthon 2015 is the Kia Soul commercial featuring “Applause” by Lady Gaga.

The first 30 seconds of the spot seem to be a little weird. The connection between the song and the visuals isn’t quite there. Eventually it falls into a rhythm and you start to figure out what’s happening. By the end of it you realize that thematically it all goes together well.

Gaga sings about “living for the applause,” doing her best to please the public as much as she can. The Kia Soul at the end claims to be “totally transformed.”

So what’s the connection? The hamsters.

They are working super hard to totally transform themselves, so that they can be at their best and please the people. They want the applause, and they sure get it.

They come out of the tempest looking their absolute flyest, stepping onto the red carpet (out of a Kia Soul, of course) and shocking the world.

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle

Want an encore? Click here to open a Spotify playlist of songs including,

“Girl Gone Wild” by Madonna, “In My Eyes” by Robyn, “Pop That Lock” by Adam Lambert, “Mirrors” by Natalia Kills, and “Mixed Emotions” by Annie

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As promised, today on DTS we’ll be checking out another of the hamster commercials from Kia. This one features LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.”

Before the song drops in, I was thinking that it wasn’t going to work very well. With the mechanical robot apocalyptic military theme happening, I was already thinking in my head of songs with more of an electronic or dubstep vibe that I think they could have chosen instead. 

I was actually wrong!

Somehow this song works pretty perfectly. It adds a touch of kitsch that is more fun than annoying. There is something very satisfying about watching a robot shake his ass to that iconic scratchy breakdown. They all have some MOVES! Even the guy who lost his torso.

The moral of the story here is, buy a Kia Soul. It’ll end wars!

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle (even though the line “every day I’m shufflin’ would suggest otherwise)

Wanna keep party rocking? Click here to access a Spotify playlist of songs including,

“Turn Up The Love” by Far East Movement and Cover Drive, “In My Trunk” by DEV and 2 Chainz, “You’re Gonna Love This” by 3OH!3, “All You” by The Cataracs, Waka Flocka Flame and Kaskade, and “Looks Like Sex” by Mike Posner

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I had so much fun yesterday with one of the Kia hamster commercials, that I decided to do it again today. Turns out that there are a few of them, so who knows, we might end up doing them all week ;) Stay tuned.

This version of the Kia hamster commercials features “Gangnam Style” by Psy, though at the beginning there is some opera song that I don’t know how to go about identifying. Sorry about that.

I think the choice here is pretty decent, if I can put aside my personal dislike of the song itself. In the same way that a Korean song shocked everyone by becoming huge in America, the hamsters come out of nowhere to upstage the ballet dancers and the opera singer.

The hamsters win over the crowd and then take off, back to their own time, showing how the Kia is a technology from the future.

The song is upbeat and surprising and was about to be absolutely massive. Riding the success of the song could only be a good thing for Kia.

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle

Feeling the K-Pop fever? Click here to open a Spotify playlist of other Korean pop jams like “Gangnam Style” including,

“Electric Shock” by f(x) “Everybody” by SHINee “Catch Me If You Can” by Girls’ Generation “Fantastic Baby” by BIGBANG, and “Huh” by 4minute

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Today on DTS we’ll look at the Kia Soul commercial which features Maroon 5′s song “Animals.”

Flat out, I think this song is pretty much perfect for the commercial. The song rolls out with an infectious thump and a mysterious swagger, and feels absolutely electric when the chorus drops in. Fitting, considering the Soul featured in the commercial is an electric vehicle. 

The lab elements of the commercial work well too, as blips and staticky notes don’t feel out of place when laid over top. And of course there’s the obvious correlation between the song title and the hamsters that are the characters of the spot.

Of course the song is about sex, and so throwing in the “hot chick” for good measure didn’t hurt.

Overall, the song is infectious and the commercial is heaps of fun.

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle

Itching for more? Click here to open a Spotify playlist of feisty tracks like “Animals” including:

“Counting Stars” by OneRepublic “Hall of Fame” by The Script “Sing” by Ed Sheeran “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark” by Fall Out Boy, and “Friction” by Imagine Dragons

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Today on DTS, we’ll be going over the Tropicana commercial that features “Carried Away” by Passion Pit.

Perhaps they were trying to be a bit cheeky with the title of the song, suggesting that Tropicana Farmstand juices are so delicious that they are constantly being carried away off of the shelves.

Whatever their intentions, it’s a song you can easily imagine hearing on a tropical island, chanting with a crowd of strangers during happy hour just before the sun is about to go down. Everyone is having a good time. Hopefully there is Tropicana Farmstand in everyone’s drink.

I think this track does the job that it’s supposed to. It takes an otherwise boring commercial and makes it a little more enjoyable, by adding a funky synths and chanty vocals in a way that’s unlikely to offend many. 

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle

Craving more juice in your cup? Click here to open a Spotify playlist of songs that would mix well with “Carried Away,” including:

“Are You What You Want To Be?” by Foster The People “Greek Tragedy” by The Wombats “Dreams” by Youngblood Hawke “Elevate” by St. Lucia, and “Sun” by Two Door Cinema Club

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Today on DTS we will talk about the Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 commercial which featured the song “Too Close” by Alex Clare. 

Now, I won’t go into the merit of the commercial itself, because I think any advertisement for a new (or revamped) web browser is going to be super boring.

But with that said, Microsoft proved to be in the know as far as trends are concerned. The spot was released in 2012 when dubstep was making huge strides in the mainstream music world, and it is the song which made the spot stand out. People remembered it because the song was so wonky, so weird, and yet so catchy. 

“Too Close” ended up going Top 10 in the US and Top 5 in the UK after the exposure it gained from the commercial.

All in all, this song feels techy and somehow perfectly fits the message of futurism and newness Microsoft seemed to be going for.

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle

Want more? Click here to open a Spotify playlist of songs similar to “Too Close,” including:

“Never Let You Go” by Rudimental and Foy Vance “Your Touch” by Blake Lewis “Promises” by Nero “Blind Faith” by Chase & Status and Liam Bailey, and the Flux Pavilion remix of “Cracks” by Freestylers and Belle Humble

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In this edition of DTS we’ll be talking about a Sony commercial from 2006. The spot was for Sony’s line of Bravia LCD televisions, and featured the song “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez.

Alright, now for the commercial itself, I understand what they are going for and think it’s pretty cool. You throw 250,000 bouncing balls down the streets of San Francisco to illustrate the vibrancy of the colors and the detail that the Bravia television is able to pick up on. That’s quite a fun concept, deserving of an equally fun soundtrack.

Unfortunately, “Heartbeats” is hardly a song that I would call fun. It’s actually very morose, and subdued. I mean it’s one man singing and playing one acoustic guitar. Don’t get me wrong, because I absolutely love this song (and, although it is a cover, I think it’s far better than the original), but it just doesn’t work for this concept.

The song is a slow one, and adding slow motion shots of the balls bouncing doesn’t justify the choice of song. There’s also no justification for the song simply due to one of the lyrics being “ten days of perfect tunes / the colors red and blue.” Singing about color doesn’t mean it’s a match for the commercial.

Try harder next time.

Verdict: Do The Shuffle

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Welcome to the first installment of Do The Shuffle! For this first edition I will be going over the above Nikon commercial for the Coolpix S8000 camera. It features the song "Welcome Home" by Radical Face.

Right away the song is upbeat and happy, which adds to the joyous visual of a wedding about to take place. As the song progresses and becomes more layered, the visuals become more adventurous and epic, showing travels to Egypt and a fantastic spectacle of flashing light from concert goers flashing their cameras at the same time. Both the music and visuals swell in time with one another, and the effect is overall quite nice.

The song seems to disappear right as it hits its crescendo, but that is simply due to the 30 second time limit of the spot. This commercial aired in 2010, and perhaps if it were released today there would be an opportunity to release a longer length version that could live online. I think something like that could be very emotional and draw viewers in even more.

All in all I think this song and commercial fit each other beautifully.

Verdict: Don’t Do The Shuffle