Flavorwire

When the advertisement for Dell’s new laptop started airing last week, it came accompanied by a song that was kind of like Broken Bells, only shittier. Unfortunately, this is far from the first time a band has had its music “borrowed” for a commercial — the sound-alike has a long and ignominious history, and since suing for music-related copyright infringement is notoriously difficult, it’s unlikely to stop any time soon. After the jump, we’ve collated some of the more notorious examples from years gone by. Read on and shake your head in disbelief. (We also can’t help but be amused that several of the most shameless examples have been quickly dragged off YouTube by the companies involved on the basis of, yes, copyright infringement. Ha.)

Broken Bells vs. Dell

Right, so let’s start with the most recent case. It wasn’t just us who noticed the suspicious resemblance between the music used in the advertisement above and Broken Bells’ track “The Ghost Inside” — Stereogum blogged about it, among others — and if you have a listen to the original, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a pretty shameless piece of musical naughtiness.

The original: