Advertising agencies are desperate to show that they're "with it," which is why they cram ads with the latest radio-friendly alternative songs. The songs -- the more emo-ish, the better -- give the product a sheen of hipness that no visual can convey quite as well.

Over the last decade, alternative songs on ads have become so prevalent that it is one the main ways I discover new music to buy. I would have never found Kings of Leon back in the mid-'00s without that VW ad featuring the song 'Molly's Chambers,' and Apple's relentless use of Feist's '1234' on an iPod ad made me go and download it from iTunes.

But, for the most part, the repetitive nature of advertising has ruined my enjoyment of a number of songs over the last few years, with no more egregious example than the song 'Holiday' by Vampire Weekend. This song is featured in not one but two holiday-themed ads this December, both of which are being played in heavy rotation. Those ads, and some more songs ruined by commercials, after the jump.

'Holiday' was released on Vampire Weekend's excellent 'Contra' album last January. If you look at the song's lyrics, they have nothing to do with the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa season. It starts off bright and cheery, though, with the words "Holliday, oh a holiday/And the best one of the year," but eventually, a few seconds later, continues with the not so cheery "But if I wait for a holiday/Could it stop my fear?" The refrain concludes with the less-than-Christmasy "To go away on a summer's day/Never seemed so clear."

But it's bouncy and sounds alternative. So in their infinite wisdom, advertising agencies have deemed it the hot new song of the holiday season.

Because of this we're hearing the song not once but twice in heavy rotation. First, there's this ad for Tommy Hilfiger, where a very merry hipster holiday feast is interrupted by a driving dog:



Then there's this ad for Honda, who is trying to sell Civics with cute stop-action photography and slightly less hip young adults in lit-up Christmas sweaters:



I'd imagine that there are a bunch of advertising executives who are sitting around all ticked off this holiday season, grumbling that the jerkwads at either Hilfiger or Honda (depending on who they work for) stole their idea for using that Vampire Weekend song.

Now that I'm hearing the song at least once per commercial break, though, all I can think of when I hear it in other venues are these cutesy Christmas ads. I'm sure the guys in the band don't care; they're ecstatic that the song is in two such high profile commercials. But do they really want 'Holiday' to be known as "the Vampire Weekend Christmas song" for the rest of their careers? Because right now, it's dangerously close to having that status.

Of course, 'Holiday' is just the latest in a long line of songs ruined by being featured in repetitively-aired, long-running ad campaigns. Three recent examples:

'Hey Soul Sister' by Train: OK, this has never been one of my favorite songs, even before it was inflicted on our ears by Samsung, who first used the song and it's irritating "Heeeeaaay, Heyayayya yah" refrain to promote TVs, then refrigerators. Then Showtime picked it and rammed it down our throats with endless ads promoting season two of 'Nurse Jackie.' But now you pretty much hear it everywhere, from a recent episode of 'Glee' to timeouts during baseball games.

Anywhere there's a need for a banjo or ukulele and a refrain to sing along with, the song is used. It finally replaced Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in that category, which may make me like the late Hawaiian singer's version again.

'1901' by Phoenix: Yes, this is the song that you heard on endless Cadillac ads, and I'm sure the refrain "Falling, Falling, Falllliiiinnng" rings in your head to this day. But did you know that the title of the song was actually "1901?" Neither did I until I bought the 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix' CD last year. I'm sure most people searched for the song by the name "Fallin'" or "Falling," so much so that the French band should have renamed the song in the United States. And even though fans of Phoenix wouldn't touch a Cadillac even if they could afford it, the song will be forever associated with a brand that many people still think of as either their grandfather's car or an SUV that carries Diddy's entourage.

'Animal' by Neon Trees: The Las Vegas tourism board used 'Animal' to advertise some concept called "Camp Vegas" last year, and played those ads to death. The song is pretty poppy and slick to begin with, but when the song hit it big on alternate rock radio -- and iTunes and satellite radio -- earlier this year, all I could think of was pretty people partying and sitting by the pool at The Palms hotel.

Then, in a moment that inflicted a sensory pain that only someone in the room will truly understand, BBC America decided to lead into their TCA summer press tour session by playing the same 90-second clip reel of their shows over and over and over again for a half-hour. The song that backed the clip reel? You guessed it. Even today, every time I hear the lyrics "Oh oh, I want some more" and "Say goodbye to my heart tonight" I get flashbacks to being in that room, with 'Animal' burrowing into my brain like an earwig. Actually, earwigs probably do less damage to people's brains than that song did.

Tell us: what songs have been ruined for you by relentless repetition on commercials?

(Follow @joelkeller on Twitter.)