What's The Song In The Vrbo Football Commercial?
After this year's Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, University of Oregon fans will certainly associate the vacation rental service with football dominance, as their 45 to 6 routing of Liberty University was something out of a sports movie. Vrbo — the title sponsor and an official travel sponsor of the College Football Playoff — wants to create lasting memories for fans of all stripes.
That's at least the messaging behind its recent ad campaign, titled "Football Away with Vrbo," which positions Vrbo rentals as the ideal gathering place for traveling college football fans. The Vrbo ad is soundtracked by Fleetwood Mac's 1979 track "Tusk" from the album of the same name.
The ad likens fans' football travels to a sacred pilgrimage, with a Vrbo home acting as "your own safe haven deep behind enemy lines." The reliable rentals, the narrator continues, are "a place to reunite with your actual family of five and your chosen family of 105,213," as the ad cuts from a cozy kitchen to the Longhorns' massive stadium in Austin. The commercial concludes with Vrbo's football season mission statement: "Turn all those away games into home games in a Vrbo all year long."
The chugging drum beat of "Tusk" is a fitting call to arms for scores of college football fans who descend upon towns across America. Crucially, the song has roots in college football, as Fleetwood Mac enlisted the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band to perform on the track.
Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' is a USC anthem
Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham began noodling the riff that would become "Tusk," but it was drummer Mick Fleetwood who envisioned adding a horn section. "I started getting this fantasy of adding a marching band that I got when I was in northern France," Fleetwood recalled to Ultimate Classic Rock. "I came home with the idea of finding a great marching band. It was something I'd heard in this village, the local band playing stuff."
The band ended up hiring the USC Trojan Marching Band to bring the song to life. "I took it out to [marching band director] Dr. [Arthur] Bartner," Fleetwood continued. "They did the arrangement around the riff, and that song was resurrected, sort of out of the dustbin – and became somewhat of a classic." Indeed, "Tusk" became a Top Ten hit in the U.S.
Well after the song's release, the marching band remained integral to "Tusk." The band would periodically perform onstage with Fleetwood Mac in concert, and "Tusk" has become part of the marching band's repertoire.
For that reason, fans are understandably angry that USC doesn't appear in the Vrbo ad, which highlights schools like Ohio State, Michigan, and the University of Alabama. The top YouTube comment reads, "Hey @Vrbo, where is the USC band ... the one that actually PLAYS the song you're using in the background?"