Excerpts from June, 2000 issue of a Spin magazine article titled, "Car Tunes for New Grownups: Advertisers Tap the Music of a Formerly Jilted Generation":

"It is a universally acknowledged truth that the best music you'll ever hear is whatever you played in your first car. If you were born around the time of Woodstock, the sound of the (sic) Smiths coming out of the tape deck of a green Camaro could forever be the soundtrack to the Happiest Time of Your Life. Those Smiths fans, arbiters of cool in their youth, are now in their late 20's and early 30's, right about the age when people make their first "serious" car purchase Which is why, in recent commercials, the Smiths are selling you Nissans, the Buzzcocks are pushing Toyotas, and the Minutemen are hawking Volvos. Congratulations, punk-rock fans and former slackers--you're now the auto industry's target market!"

(Later on in the article)

"Nearly every ad agency stocks its creative department with people...whose music knowledge makes them an invaluable source for selling products to their peers. 'I love the Smiths, and we'd never heard that kind of guitar in a mass-market commercial,' says Rob Scwartz of TBWA/Chiat/Day, which created the Nissan ad featuring the tremelo-tinged intro from the Smiths' 'How Soon is Now?' 'We thought it was sort of revolutionary.'"

(later on in the article)

"Nick Drake, the Minutemen, and, for that matter, the Smiths aren't mass-market bands, either; many Gen X-ers were too young to know about punk rock when the Buzzcocks were busy creating it. But these artists all went on to become alt-rock godfathers. Their songs are a perfect vehicle for advertisers to help potential car buyers reconcile adult prosperity with youthful rebellion, even if the impulse is only instinctive."