I was doing my travel agent-y thing the other morning and had occasion to call a Hilton hotel to try to change an existing reservation. Apparently, they had only trainees available who didn’t know how to make the modification I needed – so I was put on hold while they figured out what to tell me (short answer: book additional nights myself in my system).

While on hold, I heard a few notes of the “music” they use for such things, and to my surprise it was not only a tune I recognized, but one I have on iTunes and also one I’ve seen performed live. Turns out Hilton has a whole series of TV ads that came out this winter with nice pop songs that make you feel all special and cozy about paying Hilton rates (and remember, these people spawned Paris…). It was Jason Mraz’s “Life Is Wonderful.”

I went Googling around and found there are websites devoted to identifying and discussing music in advertisements. Apparently, quite a few people thought Jason’s singing was “OMG that is the g8tst thx u so much1!!!!!1” No, really, it’s a nice song. What’s interesting to me is how quickly Jason Mraz went from “quirky independent artist” to “possible commercial sellout” (only in my own opinion, really)
just because I heard his song while on hold. It’s all about how you market your product, I guess… so I hope Jason gets some perks out of Hilton while touring.  

iTunes: Jason Mraz: Life Is Wonderful: Mr. A-Z [4:20]

[composed and posted with ecto]

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