Tikkabik

Every so often I find the choice of music used in television advertising so appalling I'm absolutely stupified.

The latest example of this is TD Bank Financial Group, an aggressively growing financial institution based in Canada which is running ads to build brand awareness of its TD Banknorth and TD Ameritrade businesses.

The music they're playing in the background is the unmistakable piano riff that runs in the background of The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Here are the first three lines of that song:

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life

Trying to make ends meet

You're a slave to money then you die

Now, it's a haunting riff, if you've never heard it -- it sticks with you. So on one hand I can understand why they'd want to use it. On the other, it's so frighteningly inappropriate for a financial institution, I have to wonder what the hell their marketing people were thinking.