Accordions in TV Advertising

I began compiling this list in 1995. Most of the undated ads were airing at that time. Finally I realized I was going to make a page of these and started dating the entries. I stopped updating this list in December 1997, but further contributions will be listed in the next edition of my book, the Pretty Complete Guide to Squeezeboxes.

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Squeezebox Newsgroup discussion on TV ads with accordion:

I've been noticing for quite some time now that almost half the commercials I hear on television, if not more, have an accordion playing in the soundtrack, usually a cajun or zydeco song.

What with this (1996) being the "Year Of The Accordion" (I've even seen that in an ad in the Hamilton paper) the accordion appears to be quite the trendy instrument. A lot of bands have been putting songs on their albums featuring accordions on one or two songs, which is good for people such as myself who do session work.

I'd have to say that if there was something that would let generations a few decades from now recognize a commercial as being from the 90's, like sideburns and tacky clothes were a sure sign of the 80s, it would be the sound of an accordion (some commercials even go so far as to actually show someone playing one).

Chris Cracknell (ad329@freenet.hamilton.on.ca)

The resurgence in the use of accordions and other free reed boxes in ads is not just coincidental. Apparently some research company ran some focus groups testing their reaction to various TV commercial sound tracks. Those that included accordion sounds gave strong responses in areas such as

trust
home
friendly
nostalgia

So if you have to sell used cars, you should take your PA to work.

Nick (trust me, I have an accordion)

Nick Robertshaw (bignick@clark.net)

Wendy's List of TV Ads featuring Accordions

Here is what I have collected through December 1997. An up-to-date list can be found in my book, the Pretty Complete Guide to Squeezeboxes.

• Auto Sales & Service
• Communications & Technology
• Other Services
• Stores & Misc Products
• Food & Drink

Auto Sales & Service

• Isuzu ad with Zydeco music
• Pontiac Sunfire ad, Italian accordion music
• Saturn commercial with accordion music, bicycle team race, NBC, 10 Oct 1996
• Neon Nov 3, 1996 8:00 - 9:00 on the local CBS station - lots of blue skies and flowers with accordion music in the background.
• GM Goodwrench - Harmonica & accordion together
• The Midas International commercial where the announcers are speaking in foreign languages with English subtitles and appropriate music - the Swedish segment features an accordion.
• Ford Contour June 8, 1997 on TBS at 10 pm. We overhear a bunch of junkyard dogs chasing cars and commenting on them, until along comes a Ford Contour, which they are afraid of and which they know they won't be able to catch, as they discuss it in awed tones. After the Contour whizzes past, a fancy Italian sports car appears, accompanied by a tarantella played on accordion, and one dog says to the other "Hey - you up for a little Italian?"
• Get to know Geo Metro June 14, 1997 NBC during Saturday Night Live at midnight, had a little bit of accordion music at the end.

Communications & Technology

• Sprint Sense International Calls, French accordion
• AT&T International Phone Calls featuring Celtic style whistle & accordion changing into French and Italian style accordion as we cross the continent - this is a really nice soundtrack
• Direct TV - I'm not sure about this one but it sounded like fiddle and accordion, sort of a country R&B sound. Very nice, danceable.
• Ad for the movie "Carpool" , with R&B accordion: spotted Aug 18 1996
• Apple's "Bring Learning Home" infomercial for the Performa. An English concertina is shown at the beginning of ad. Dec 15 ,1996 on Paramount.
• AT&T is back again, March 25, 1997 on ABC, in an ad featuring Paul Reiser of "Mad About You" telling us how great the new prices are, with some nice accordion background music. Paging MCI...got a suggestion for you...
• June 7, 1997 on Fox: AT&T is ATT it again, with Paul Reiser telling us that "AT& T makes it simple", accompanied by very soft & bluesy zydeco-influenced mood music. Boy, this company's ad agency really loves the accordion.
• Those phone companies. MCI must have found this web page - now they're getting into the act with their "MCI 5 cent Sundays" ads, featuring easygoing accordion dance music. Spotted 9:30 pm Sept 24, 1997 on Paramount, during Star Trek:Voyager.
• Primestar Satellite TV ad Oct 11, 1997 8:45 pm on Paramount.

Other Services

• The French cafe scene from DHL's inept foreign delivery service series, complete with moody rainy day accordion music, also from 1995
• American Express Financial Advisors, lots of accordion here
• We, along with 7 other accordionists in the Washington, DC area, participated in a commercial for Days Inn with Willard Scott of the Today Show. The commercial was filmed in September 1995, and was seen on the Today Show, Headline Sports on CNN, and various other cable networks, during the period March 1 - July 1 of 1996.
  - Joan & Dan Grauman, SqueezinArt
• Sept 17, 1997 on Paramount, 11:30 pm, right after "Mad About You", concertina music in an ad for the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Never mind that concertinas weren't invented til the 19th century. . .

Stores & Misc Products

• Hechingers
• Best Buy
• Champs Sports - here's a shocker: Klezmer Accordion & Band. You tell me.
• Haynes Underwear where they have underwear from different countries on a clothesline - August, 1996
• Fruit of the Loom - spotted this one 8/18/96 - Alpine Swiss accordion, complete with yodelling
• Allegra allergy relief, FX 8/23/97, 9:45 pm. Zydeco accordion & band during Mission: Impossible
• Tresemme hair products, 10/17/96
• Windex with zydeco accordion
• Softscrub, March, 1997, during the TV show High Incident
• Whiskas cat food, accompanied with tango music
• Advantage flea control system, UPN, 7/14/97, 9:30 PM. Accordion accompaniment to barking dogs & meowing cats over Johnny Cash style Western "soundtrack" music.
• "She took the recliner, she took Sparky, she took the lights, but she left the Farberware Do It All Pan." Country style yodelling accordion music. 10/1/97 during CBS News at 4:20 pm.
• Food Lion, Paramount, Nov 17 1997 at 4:30 pm. Polka band with accordion.
• America's Best Contact Lenses, 12/4/97 at 12:45 am on Fox.
• Men's Wearhouse, 12/4/97 on Fox.

Food & Drink

• Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ad with Italian music ("How Charlie the Barber eats a Reese's")
• Kit Kat Bar with Russian street band and accordion player hamming it up for the camera - this one is from 1995
• Entenmann's cereal bars -zydeco style, September 1996
• Kraft Parmesan Cheese with (natch) Italian accordion music
• Wendy's Country French chicken sandwich - more French cafe music
• Boboli ad with Italian accordion music, of course
• Rosetto Ravioli - spotted 10/24/96 on TNT
• Chi Chi's salsa
• Popeye's Spicy Cajun chicken with, surprise, Cajun music
• Mumm Champagne, October 21, 1996, KPIX TV (CBS affiliate in S.F.)
• Juicy Juice
• 7-Up "It's an up thing" w/mixed down accordion
• Barq's (some kind of drink) - French music for Barq's "Animation Festival". Not a very effective ad, if you ask me - can't tell what Barq's is. The music is nice though . . .
• Folger's Coffee Singles - October 1996
• not to be outdone, Maxwell House followed up with French cafe music on a very rich musette tuned accordion, spotted on Paramount 11/29/96
• Lucky Foods, January, 1997 (radio)
• Olive Garden "Tuscan Holiday Feast" with old man playing Funiculi Funicula on a piano accordion. This is one of those rare ads where we get to see the accordion, not just hear it. CBS, 12/9/96.
• Healthy Choice soup - zydeco accordion. CBS 11/9/97 at 8:45 pm.
• McDonald's, Paramount 11/17/97 5 pm. Light R&B sounds on accordion

Gary Blair contributed the following from Scotland:
I saw an ad on TV last night for Heineken Beer.It starts off with three Italian looking men in a train.(it is supposed to be the 1940's I think). One of the men is holding the World Boxing Championship belt. As the train is arriving at the station, the man puts on the belt as there is a large crowd gathered on the platform. He opens the door of the train expecting everyone to rush up to him. The crowd ,which has a man carrying an old piano accordion on his back, rushes right past him, to the last door of the train.
An old looking gentleman steps out as the crowd goes wild. He then crosses the road with the crowd in pursuit and pulls a set of keys from his pocket and opens the door to his bar. As the crowd sit sipping their beer, one of them says something like "Why does Luigi need to take such a long holiday!" It ends with the big Italian in the middle of the square, throwing the belt away.
Nice touch I thought.

Contributed by Joyce Ashcroft:
Spotted in a commercial for Energizer batteries: Wile E. Coyote setting a fiendish trap for the Energizer Bunny (guess the Road Runner is in a contract dispute or something), ends up springing the trap on himself as usual and mashing himself between a huge boulder and a large overhanging rock. Presto, his whole body is now an instant accordion... he even sounded a feeble chord or two before collapsing into the dust.