Guinness tune named top ad theme

A Guinness tune is head and shoulders above the rest as the UK’s favourite advert theme.

The booming track Phat Planet by defunct dance duo Leftfield topped a poll by compilers of a new album of music from commercials called Classic Ads.

The striking black and white film it accompanies, of surfers riding enormous waves alongside white horses, was last year voted best ad of all time in a Channel 4 survey.

Runner-up in the music poll by record company Universal Classics was the African theme from the Heinz ads, Inkanyezi Nezazi by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Cantilena, written by Karl Jenkins and performed by his group Adiemus, used by Cheltenham and Gloucester, was third most popular, while the flower duet from Lakme by Delibes, featured in a British Airways campaign, was fourth.

Research used to compile the album also highlighted choices of several professions. IT workers, like Big Brother winner Kate Lawler, opted for GF Handel’s Sarabande, featured in a recent Levi’s ad as a couple crashed through walls.

Perhaps unsurprisingly publicans went for the Guinness ad, while Michael Nyman’s Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds - heard in the Posh Spice Walker’s ad - was the favourite of taxi drivers who took part in the poll.

Classic Ads features 36 tunes made popular by or featured in commercials.