Mele’s Musings

Whatever Happened to the Jingle?

I can still recall all of the words to the Big Mac commercial song. And the Sesame Street theme. And, to the great annoyance of my children, any song written by the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and, yes, even most Duran Duran.Think about it the next time you are in your car and a song comes on that you haven’t heard for 10 or 20 years, and you still know every word. Heck, you probably can sing the guitar solo. It’s is remarkable, particularly given the fact I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast most days, or recall what my wife told me to pick up at the store the minute I hang up the phone.

Music is an amazing thing. Studies have shown that it, more than any other sense, can bring back powerful memories and emotional attachments. “While all the expressive therapies capitalize on autobiography in one way or another, the sensory power music in particular quickly stimulates both long-term personal memory and emotion in ways no other art forms do.”

In fact, studies on patients with Alzheimers have shown that even those who are losing more and more of their memory over time are still able to recall songs from their past.

So what happened to all of the jingles? Yes, I guess there are a few still around. There are the super-lame Kit Kat spots that try to mimic the “Gimme a Break” jingle via people cracking and chewing on Kit Kats.

Link

There was the super-awesome “Free Credit Report.com” commercial - with the classic line “too bad I didn’t know my credit was whack cause now I’m drivin’ off the lot in a used sub-compact.”

But mostly now commercials are jingle free - not necessarily music free - but free from short catchy songs that make us remember brands. Recently, Forbes put out an article which named the greatest jingles ever. The interesting thing was that I could recall all of the songs and most of the words.  Most of the jingles we hear today are in fact not new, but re-hashes of previous successful jingles.

Don’t confuse jingles with the use of music. There are lots of commercials that use music to help make a point or create disruption or entertain. For example, the Kia hamster commercials use music to this effect very well. I’m not sure if I love them or hate them, but I do watch them, and I do connect hamsters and Kias.  For all that’s worth.

Makes me sad for the loss. I mean, what is more memorable and catchy - the “Be a Pepper” song, or lame Dr. Pepper ads starring KISS and KISS look-alike little people? Not even close.

So what happened? Why have we lost jingles? Is it because creatives think the jingle is below them? I would argue that if anything can cut through the clutter it’s a simple catchy song that people sing over and over again about a brand.

Afterall, it’s an expression of the brand that people can take with them. It’s an expression of the brand that has been scientifically proven to drive memory and emotion. Aren’t those the very things that we claim we want advertising to do in order to change peoples’ perceptions and behaviors?

And the way that media is interconnected today, it seems a natural extension that music in one arena, say a TV commercial, can find life in other arenas - being passed around on facebook or uploaded onto YouTube. They can become ringtones, or can be used as audio ads in services like Pandora. For the truly creative, the possibilities are great.

So, here’s the challenge - how do we bring the jingle back? Do we have the guts to?