I'm all for using classical music in commercials.  It's fun to watch
people's faces when they learn that the lovely duet they heard on the
Delta commercials is from a real opera, or the music behind a recent car
ad* was actually a prayer for deliverance from hell from a classical
requiem.  And as Mike McLaughlin says, it's better than what the
producers might otherwise have used.

No use of music in a commercial is going to start a stampede for the
record stores, but at the Atlanta Symphony we do occasionally get calls
from the public, wanting to know what that intriguing "song" was that
they heard in such and such a TV ad.  It's nice to hope that at least one
record has been sold.

The tide actually flows the other way sometimes.  The fascinating theme
from the De Beers diamond commercials ("Palladio" by Karl Jenkins) became
so popular that it actually found its way onto some of our pops programs.

Who knows?  Maybe Delibes and Mozart would have been only too glad to
write for commercials if the opportunity had been theirs.

* Sorry, Madison Avenue.  I'm afraid I remember the music much more
distinctly than the brand name.

Nick Jones
Atlanta, Georgia