The best songs in advertisements

The Waterloo sun may have set on THE KINKS‘ heyday, but the Britpop legends still know how to rock a Freestyle Blood Glucose Monitor. Or so it seems in the happy-dancing-hands ad for Abbott Labs’ diabetes implement, which uses the band’s 40-year-old ”Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy.” Because nothing says happy like a good blood draw.

The latest to receive Apple’s kiss of commercial approval? French dance duo RINÔÇÉRÔSE, whose ”Cubicle” booms as a swooping tornado of classic albums slides into one tiny, work-concealable iPod. For those on a tighter budget, there’s a consolation prize — the song itself is available now for 99 cents on (hello, synergy!) iTunes.

If you’ve got a spare $80,000 lying around, SPOON‘s galvanic, syncopated rocker ”I Turn My Camera On” sure makes the idea of buying a 2007 Jaguar XK newly sexy and Gen-X-y, as do the ad’s arresting freeze-frame cuts. Lyrically, it’s more suited to Kodak; still, in singer Britt Daniel’s own words, the ad does hit us like a tom.

Ah, Honda Civic: When we think four-door stability and high consumer safety ratings, we too visualize the fragile, whispering wings of a butterfly. A pupa metamorphoses to the sweet ”ba ba ba” chorus of THE POSTAL SERVICE‘s electro-pop ditty ”We Will Become Silhouettes” in a new, CGI-heavy clip for the current edition of the car.