A jingle is a memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly broadcast on radio and sometimes on television.
It seems like more and more spots are popping up with simple and flat songs that invade your brain cells and get stuck. Jingles have been around for a long time. They started with radio advertisements being set with a musical tilt. The first one noted that I found was in 1926 on Christmas Eve sung by a quartet, the “General Mills Quartet”. It was a singing commercial for Wheaties. General Mills knew what they were doing. Wanna know the lyrics to “Have you tried Wheaties?” Of course you do.
Have you tried Wheaties?
They’re whole wheat with all of the bran.
Won’t you try Wheaties?
For wheat is the best food of man.
They’re crispy and crunchy
The whole year through,
The kiddies never tire of them
and neither will you.
So just try Wheaties,
The best breakfast food in the land.
Might come off cheesy by some of our advertising snobbery standards, but it saved this failing brand. That’s right—it worked. It was a sensation. A hit. General Mills was considering dropping Wheaties and all the sudden, back with full force. Look at these results from Wikipedia.
“Advertising manager Sam Gale pointed out that an astounding 30,000 of the 53,000 cases of cereal that General Mills sold were in theMinneapolis-St. Paul area, the only location where “Have You Tried Wheaties?” was being aired at the time[2]. Encouraged by the incredible results of this new method of advertising, General Mills changed tactics entirely. Instead of dropping the cereal, it purchased nationwide commercial time for the advertisement. The resultant climb in sales single-handedly saved the now incredibly popular cereal.”
So what about now a days. Surely simple jingles don’t work anymore. Surely we are more aware to our surroundings and the fact that we are being constantly advertised to, right? I don’t know because I’m still getting a lot of commercials stuck in my head, and I actually think it was one of the driving forces that sent me into the realm of advertising. Let’s look at some of todays hooks that have me hooked.
The FreeCreditReport.com spots where there dressed as pirates. You know it. You’ve heard it. I can probably sing that for you right now—and I hate myself for it. By the way, this spot has 460,000 views on youTube. Insane.
FREECREDITREPORT.COM Spot
And this Comcast spot fits in that category. This is a very smart commercial that has roughly 2.8 billion colors in it, and a song that is flat and memorable. And I don’t mean, like remember all the lyrics memorable, I mean like I will hum this for the rest of the day til I get another song stuck in there.
COMCAST SPOT
And of course the “5 Dollar Footlong” spots make me want to shoot my self in the face. First the spot comes out that indroduces the song. Now, there are just commercials with “real people”—all paid casted paid actors, no doubt—singing the damn song. But yet I went to Subway and enjoyed a Philly cheese steak last weekend. Damn it. It blows my mind that this spot has 290,000 views on youTube. WHY!?!? What are people watching?!? It’s the damn song.
SUBWAY SPOT
Commercials are the perfect platform to introduce a bands new single whether the band is known or not. I’ve looked up songs many a times to find out what they were so I can listen to them later. One of the top of my head would be “List of Demands” by Saul Williams from the Better than Your Better Spot by Nike. Some use versions of popular songs and just adjust the lyrics.
This is one that killed me the first time I saw it. I can still sing it. And by sing, I mean rock it out. I’d play this commercial on Rock Band if I could. Enjoy.
STARBUCKS
Music does something to us. Song, not just sound design, can be a very powerful tool when used right. Whether it’s carrying a melody, delivery a message or brand tone, inflicting an emotion like relaxation, a mnemonic device to remember a number or to take out your recycling when it’s done right and creatively it sticks—whether you want it to or not.
I’d love to hear some more from others. What commercials are getting stuck in your head just because of the music?
Great Job, you Creative bastards
