NEW! - Gap Spring 2003 - Feel Groovy - Rejected Music Beds This season, unlike the Summer of 2002 (see below), GAP made four different films, but ended up using the same song on each one (they're clever that way). But before they arrived at Simon and Garfunkel's timeless classic, our trusty fictitious insider told us that there was first serious consideration for an obscure Louis Prima ditty -- that is, until objections were brought up about the song's decidedly unGAPlike subject matter. Luckily, we were able to obtain two of the spots using the Prima mix before they were locked away in the reject vault.  See and hear them by clicking on either of the two images below.

But it didn't end there. In a textbook example of overenthusiastic overcorrecting, the GAP creative team settled upon a beloved Frank Sinatra standard that they were certain would appease and please both their bosses and the masses. Later, just before they were escorted out of the building by security, one of the hapless souls was able to provide our fabricated insider with a tape containing the pink slip-producing commercial. Click the image to the right to see. Left with a office staffed only by interns and a custodian, executive management decided to plow ahead and finish the campaign themselves. A chairperson instructed the custodian to run to the record store down the street and find a tune with a catchy hook that was easy to listen to, a little bit gritty, and most importantly, completely groovy. The custodian, thinking this was his ticket to a promotion, did as he was told, but thanks to his thick accent and difficulty understanding Executive English, what he brought back was close, but not exactly groovy. Click the image to the right to experience the commercial that caused the original creative team to be rehired (with handsome bonuses) so they could finish the spring campaign with poignant use of Simon and Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).

   

Gap Summer 2002 - Rejected Music Beds
 

The smartest companies out there invest huge wads of money into their advertising to get the look and feel of their brands juuuuuust right. The GAP is no exception. For their Summer 2002 TV campaign, they hired the hottest talent, outfitted them with the gappiest styles, and had them filmed by the most stylish directors that gift certificates could buy.

But then they took it one step further by taking two different music tracks to each of the commercials, thus creating six spots where lesser companies would have had only three. Brilliant. But how did they arrive at the eclectic songs that were finally licensed? And better yet, were there any songs that didn't make it past their meticulously diverse and opinionated focus groups?

Well, thanks to an outside source and bit of guesswork, you're about to experience the answers... Click the pix below to watch and listen.

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Reason not used: would offend the abstinent	Reason not used: would offend cowboys	Reason not used: would offend PETA
Reason not used: would offend the Dutch	Reason not used: would offend truckers	Reason not used: would offend the unironic