One day, while watching television in Chicago, I came across the most extraordinary example of the offensive usage of music in a commercial for a company called American Standard. In this commercial, a plumber was shown running very fast in great agitation, opening the door to a lavatory and demonstrating the superiority of a particular toilet. The whole visual sequence was accompanied by the Lachrymosa from Mozart’s Requiem. Some viewers were understandably offended by the use of Mozart’s music as an aural backdrop for the sale of toilets, and wrote letters to various newspapers and to the company itself. << less