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A TV commercial (also Television Advertisement, Commercial, TV ad, spot, Advert in the UK or TV-CM in Asia) is a short promotional film of usually 15, 30 or 60 seconds specifically made to advertise a product or service and tailored to be broadcasted on Television or display on the cinema Screeen. Most commercials are produced by an outside advertising agency and airtime is purchased from a television channel or network.

The first television advertisement was broadcast in the United States at 14:29 on July 1, 1941, when the Bulova Watch Company paid $9 to New York City NBC affiliate WNBT (now WNBC) for a 10-second spot aired before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. It simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S., with a voiceover of the company's slogan "America runs on Bulova time!"

Music Prior to the 1980s music in television advertisements was generally limited to jingles and incidental music; on some occasions lyrics to a popular song would be changed to create a theme song or a jingle for a particular product. In 1971 the converse occurred when a song written for a Coca-Cola advertisement was re-recorded as the pop single "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" by the New Seekers, and became a hit. Some pop and rock songs were re-recorded by cover bands for use in advertisements, but the cost of licensing original recordings for this purpose remained prohibitive until the late 1980s.

The use of previously-recorded popular songs in television advertisements began in earnest in 1985 when Burger King used the original recording of Aretha Franklin's song "Freeway of Love" in a television advertisement for the restaurant. This also occurred in 1987 when Nike used the original recording of The Beatles' song "Revolution" in an advertisement for athletic shoes. Since then, many classic popular songs have been used in similar fashion. Songs can be used to concretely illustrate a point about the product being sold (such as Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" used for Chevy trucks), but more often are simply used to associate the good feelings listeners had for the song to the product on display. In some cases the original meaning of the song can be totally irrelevant or even completely opposite to the implication of the use in advertising; for example Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life", a song about heroin use addiction, has been used to advertise a cruise ship line. Music-licensing agreements with major artists, especially those which had not previously allowed their recordings to be used for this purpose, such as Microsoft's use of "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones and Apple Computer's use of U2's "Vertigo" became a source of publicity in themselves.

In early instances, songs were often used over the objections of the original artists, who had lost control of their music publishing the music of Beatles being perhaps the most well-known case; more recently artists have actively solicited use of their music in advertisements and songs have gained popularity and sales after being used in advertisements. Famous case is Levi's company which has used several one hit wonders in their advertisements (songs such as "Inside", "Spaceman" and "Flat Beat").

Sometimes a controversial reaction has followed the use of some particular song on an advertisement. Often the trouble has been that people do not like the idea of using songs that promote values important for them in advertisements. For example Sly and the Family Stone's anti-racism song, "Everyday People", was used in a car advertisement which caused anger among people.

Generic scores for advertisements often feature clarinets, saxophones, or various strings (such as the acoustic/electric guitars and violins) as the primary instruments.

See Music in TV Commercials and Ads

Technical Background Most commercials are produced by an outside advertising agency. The ad agencies then sub-contract the production to a film production company. While the agency develops the exact plot and tonal specifications, the film production company does the actual execution. Then, airtime is purchased from a television channel or network in order to broadcast the material. This is usually managed by an optimization agency specialised in buying fitting time slots where the intended audience can be reached. Then, the ad is delivered to the TV station via digital delivery or actual tape hardcopy. After arrival the tape is checked for quality and then get added to the ad playout system.

Clipland is active in some of the above mentioned fields. Clipland PRO helps agencies find top film producers and film production companies. Clipland PRO Portfolio enables them to preview earlier works of a candidate and chose the right one for the production of the advert. Additionally Clipland is active in the televisions ad delivery (ad trafficking or digital delivery) and optimization business.