I'm not sure if it has been ruined, but I cannot take Iggy Pop's Lust For Life seriously anymore since those cruise commercials. They cut it off before they start talking about the liquor and the drugs.

the worst offenders have been mentioned here (maxwell's 'our house' and 'crumbelievable' - the latter being a crappy song to start, but what an insanely retarded pun)
i just remember about 6-8 years ago being impressed w/ the cool old songs that were turning up on commercials: there was the rav-4 ad w/ the buzzcocks' 'what do i get,' madness' 'one step beyond' was used in an ad for a search engine (don't remember which now)... i just remember thinking at the time, i guess my generation is running the world at this point, huh?

Am I the only one who can't hear the Elton John song "Sad Songs Say So Much" with out hearing Vidal Sassoon's campaign from the 80's "Sassoon Says So Much"?

Car commercials are the worst. They often Take songs and ruin the meaning, two egregious examples are Mercedes taking the song from Janis Joplin and a Toyota Rav4 commercial using "what do I get" by the Buzzcocks.

One of my favorite songs, "Like A Rock" by Bob Seger has been deflowered by those thugs at Chevrolet and their damnable trucks!!

I MUST add circuit city for killing, absolutely slaughtering "just what i needed" by the Cars. I used to love that song, and the cars, now it just makes me groan.

This can go both ways. I hate it when The Who's "Bargain" is used in commercials. But I really enjoy Cadillac's use of The Zep's "Rock and Roll."

I didn't think the "Anticipation" ketchup ad ruined the song. At least it was the original artist and they didn't change the lyrics.

well, pop songs have been reused on commercials for ever on TV so these are no suprise to me. However don't always blame the band for "selling out"

Alot of times it is the label who owns the re-production rights on a song and THEY are the ones who sell it.

A song that a TV commercial ruined for me was Eric Clapton's "After Midnight". It was used in a over-run beer commercial in the 80s. I still think of the commercial if I hear the song.

What's even more scary is that when I was a kid and commercials came on using a pop song from my parents' generation, they would become melancholy - "Oh remember that song? I can't beleive they are using it in a commercial." Suddenly I am uttering the same words...