Baby got backpack

That's it. I've had it. I can't stand it any more.

Cease and desist, Target. Please do something original, Applebee's. I am annoyed by the overuse of popular music to promote a product that is completely unrelated. There have been several notably annoying examples of this trend, but two stand out.

Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar has a new selection of bowl dinners. To promote the "irresista-bowl" entrees, the restaurant chain has turned to Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistable" song from the 1980s. Sadly, Palmer is probably turning over in his grave at the use of his music to sell rice-and-chicken dinners.

In probably the worst case I have heard recently, Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" from the early 1990s is being used to hawk all sorts of back-to-school products at Target stores. What sounds like a celebrity impersonator raps new lyrics to the song, lyrics that help sell such items as backpacks.

These new uses are shameful and disappointing. Of course, artists should be free to sell their work to an advertiser, and often the song is heard in its original form. Yet, changing lyrics and using hard rap to sell backpacks at Target, is just plain grating. It just makes me want to avoid Target altogether.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.