Ten Most Horrific Commercial Jingles of All Time
Music is usually hailed as a uniting force in a divided world. But in the late 1930s, one song may have inadvertently started a war. While Pepsi’s (PEP) “Pepsi Cola Hits the Spot” didn’t play much of a role in World War II, it did eventually start a serious branding rivalry by inspiring a series of equally catchy commercial jingles from rival Coca-Cola (KO), most notably “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.”
The 2 beverages have since spent decades unleashing some of history’s most addictive jingles -- one of which was responsible for literally setting Michael Jackson's hair on fire.
The world of jingles, be they original compositions or older songs, has since exploded. The money has gotten much bigger, too. When Microsoft (MSFT) used songs from the Rolling Stones and Madonna to promote its new Windows operating systems, both artists were reportedly paid $12 million apiece for their songs.
But there’s no substitute for an all-new, 100%-original composition to sell a product -- and they provide us with one of the countless moments that make life almost unbearable. You hear a commercial jingle so mercilessly awful, yet so undeniably catchy, that you find yourself singing it to yourself several hours (or days, or weeks, or months) after first hearing it. 
Naturally, this is the kind of visceral Chinese-water-torture response advertisers are banking on. But even in a world awash with terrible commercial jingles, these 10 have managed to distinguish themselves as uniquely horrifying.
They’ve caused pain to countless TV viewers -- but music is the real victim here.
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