Jingle Jangle

Studio 360 did a radio show on advertising this week. The most interesting piece was one on advertising jingles.

For anyone who has ever had a song stuck in their head, it is certainly easy to see how jingles can be effective. A jingle can act as sort of a audio logo, making you think of the product and its benefits whenever you hear it.

The radio program points out that jingles were repeated over and over again to be effective. They explain that the reason you don’t see a lot of them now is that advertising is a lot more cluttered and diversified. You used to be able to play an ad on the three networks and everybody saw it. Now people not only go to the bathroom, but often change the channel or use TiVo. An advertiser also has to buy a lot more time on a many more diverse channels. The public is frankly more fed up. Jingles can get annoying and no one likes to have a song stuck in their head.

Now when advertisers use music, they tend to use an already popular song, borrowing interest. Sometimes this is used effectively, as with Chevy’s appropriation of “Like a Rock,” but usually this falls flat. How many commericals used Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman”? It’s kind of like using a celebrity; It can work very well, and certainly gets more people to pay attention, but if it isn’t relevant it falls flat.

There are still examples of “audio logos,” although they tend to be much shorter. NBC can be recognized by their classic 3 notes the way Nabisco can be recognized by its color red. You just see very few full fledged jingles anymore.

The show also has a great interview with George Lois, where he talks “I want my MTV” and how the idea came from an old ad slogan. They also discuss how MTV was in a way nothing but ads for the music.