
What Killed the Jingle? - pmcpinto
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/what-killed-the-jingle/497291/?single_page=true
======
agentgt
I think one of the obvious reasons to buy an existing pop song today instead
of using a jingle is that is contextual proven. Updating a jingle is probably
a far greater risk.

I think some recent artist have been accused of purposely writing songs to
sell. There is an urban myth that X Ambassador wrote "Renegade" just for Jeep
(reality is they were working on the song anyway) [1]. The myth though is not
far from the truth. I wonder how many other artist are thinking hmm this song
could work great for a commercial. I have wondered if Rachel Platten was
thinking that when she wrote fight song... that song is so emotional syrupy...
it was made to be sold for advertising (I thought for sure though it would be
used in the olympics but lost that bet to my wife).

[1]: [http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-jeep-
fou...](http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-jeep-found-
perfect-song-launch-its-renegade-campaign-164125)

~~~
WorldMaker
There's definitely a sense that some artists are intentionally writing for the
"drop pile" (songs easily and cheaply licensed) of Ad Execs and Marketing.

Several electronic artists, Celldweller being the big one off the top of my
head, have been somewhat intentionally building instrumental works just for
the off chance that Hollywood wants something "epic ready" for a film trailer.
(He has an entire "series" of albums geared towards this called Soundtrack for
the Voices in My Head. Several of them will probably have heard before in film
trailers.)

Even one of my cousins' bands engaged with this in a meta-joking way by
titling one of their recent albums "Music for Car Commercials".

~~~
tarsinge
Vaporwave[1] is an entire music genre around ironically sampling business
background music and ads specific music

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporwave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporwave)

Edit : the label Business Casual is a good start
[http://music.businesscasual.biz/#_=_](http://music.businesscasual.biz/#_=_)

------
endswapper
The proclamation that jingles are dead isn't true and the best ones will never
die. This is evidenced by the fact we still reference Folgers, Dr. Pepper,
etc. I appreciate the comments about Japan and Korea as I wouldn't be aware of
those otherwise.

Like most things advertising evolved and since mass appeal is the objective it
makes sense that pop songs, which are simple and catchy would fill the role
that jingles once played.

Pop songs, however, are relatively expensive, and even more so if you have an
effective commercial that you want to run a lot.

Without doing any additional searching I can name 2 great, current jingles
running here is Los Angeles. Powell Electric's, "...we'll fix it in a
flash..." and Empire Carpet, "...call Empire Today..."

So now I think they fill the purpose of lower budget commercials, but they are
still a live and they are still a great tool for the right job.

~~~
spdustin
I can attest to the staying power of Empire's jingle here in Chicagoland.
Especially their phone number, included in the jingle here. That, and (see if
you can complete it in your head, Chicagoans): 773-202-

And the jingle for the Kars for Kids charity is the sort of ear worm that
makes me change the station when I hear the first strum of the guitar
accompaniment, but it's done its job and gotten stuck in my head. "1-877-KARS
4 KIDS; K A R S, Kars for Kids".

Jingles work for the audience who hears them. Plenty still listen to radio on
their commutes.

~~~
brewdad
What?! When I was a kid in the Chicago area (late 70s), Empire was
"588-2-300....Empiiiiiire." When did the number change?

~~~
logfromblammo
I also recall 5-8-8-2-300. And that's the number on the website, and the one
that still plays on WGN.

Grandparent post is referring to 7-7-3-2-oh-2-LUNA!

------
drawkbox
Jingles are cheesy but many of them stick with you for a long time. "Best part
of waking up, is Folger's in your cup", "Kiss a little longer... hold tight a
little longer... longer with Big Red", "I'm a pepper, she's a pepper, he's a
pepper wouldn't you like to be a pepper to" and probably hundreds of others.
Maybe it was just hearing them so many times when TV and entertainment were
more limited and linear, but they definitely worked.

------
amelius
I really hate it when advertisements hijack existing music, especially when it
is classical music.

~~~
6stringmerc
You could imagine my surprise when hearing The Kronos Quartet teme for
_Requiem For A Dream_ being used in a trailer for one of the _Lord of the
Rings_ franchise pictures.

The one that cracks me up still is Carnival cruises using Iggy Pop's "Lust for
Life" which coincidentally a lot of people associate with the film
_Trainspotting_.

~~~
CocaKoala
For a while there was a car ad that used a clip from Meatloaf's "Paradise by
the Dashboard Lights", specifically the portion of the song which references
the title.

For context, the song itself is about a man trapped in a loveless relationship
after swearing to his girlfriend that he would love her to the end of time so
that she'd come across in the car, leading to the titular paradise. Now,
though, he's "praying for the end of time to hurry up and arrive, 'cause if I
gotta spend another minute with you I don't think that I can survive".

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ekianjo
Except in Japan where jingles are still thriving like nothing happened.

~~~
Grue3
A lot of things are thriving in Japan that already died out in the rest of the
world. Like fax machines and hand drawn animation.

~~~
nihonde
And vice versa. Using movie stars in TV ads is the new new in America, but is
old hat in Japan. Tommy Lee Jones, Arnold, Bruce Willis and Scarlett Johansson
are the only ones that I can recall in the past few years here.

~~~
ekianjo
Local stars are used all in the as well in Japanese commercials. Idols,
Actors/Actresses, Singers, etc... all because Dentsuu is basically in control
of what goes on TV and they tend to enforce the use of personalities.

------
Houshalter
Interesting. But no mention of any studies or tests whether jingles are
actually effective. Perhaps advertisers discovered they just don't work at
selling products.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Bingo. I have tons of jingles stuck in my head for products I have never
bought nor world consider buying.

There are a few things that advertising is good for. One is spreading
familiarity with a brand, but that has limits, especially with already well
known brands. The other is psychological priming. You can actually hijack
people's brains and change their enjoyment of a product through advertising by
creating associations. This is similar to the way we have "comfort foods" that
we associate with, say, being at home, etc. Advertising can prime your
experience of a product and enhance your enjoyment of it, and also make it
more memorable. Then you start layering your own experiences on top of that
kernel and you build up something like a pearl of personal associations around
that product. This is the true power of advertising, and it's huge. Jingles, I
suspect, don't always play into that aspect or create much priming.

~~~
kkarakk
>Jingles, I suspect, don't always play into that aspect or create much
priming.

you say that as you instantly recall each and every product associated with
the jingles you remember. you may not think it's influencing you but when you
goto the supermarket late at night,tired after a hard day at work and get the
message - oh be sure to get some [food item]. do you go with the brand name
you remember(your eyes hunt down the specific look and name of the product
even) or the generic thing just a few steps over that costs a little less?

------
sheraz
Best. Jingle. Ever.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS18jHMmhAI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS18jHMmhAI)

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strictnein
> "who has been nicknamed “The King of the Jingle” and whose greatest hits
> include the long-running “Nationwide Is On Your Side”"

I really have no idea where she learned it, since really no media she consumes
contains ads, but I've heard my 4 year old daughter sing "Nationwide is on
your side" on multiple occasions. It's both cute and kind of terrifying.

~~~
macd
Probably from the olympics. It seemed like Nationwide was every other
commercial during the breaks.

~~~
strictnein
Ahh, yes, she was watching a decent amount of that.

------
wyldfire
Jingles sure are less popular these days.

The SNCF "jingle" comes to mind as one I've heard recently, though [1]. It's
very distinctive, just like advertising jingles.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA5MwhuHWLo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA5MwhuHWLo)

------
eplanit
Barry Manilow was successful in the pop music world, and also wrote several
well-known jingles[1][2]. Many/most didn't know he wrote them until long after
they had been established.

[1]
[https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=bar...](https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=barry+manilow+jingles&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)
[2]
[http://barrynethomepage.com/commercialjingles.html](http://barrynethomepage.com/commercialjingles.html)

------
initram
There's a great episode of Crap From The Past[0] about pop songs that started
out as commercial jingles[1]. The most surprising one to me was the
Carpenter's hit "We've only Just Begun".

[0] [http://www.crapfromthepast.com/](http://www.crapfromthepast.com/) [1]
[https://archive.org/details/cftp-2015-11-20](https://archive.org/details/cftp-2015-11-20)

------
adanto6840
First thing that comes to my mind is the Nationwide jingle, and lately,
hearing Peyton Manning hum it. Anyone know how long the Nationwide jingle has
been around?

There are definitely still a lot of jingles that I instantly recognize or can
think of (like other posters mentioned here, Folgers is definitely another
one).

~~~
mikestew
_Anyone know how long the Nationwide jingle has been around?_

Decades, as I recall it from when I was a child, and I've got more days behind
me than ahead of me. I'm surprised to hear that they're still using it.

------
CosmicShadow
What about in podcasts?

~~~
Springtime
No Agenda is a good example. The show utilizes jingles, songs, and soundbites
for entertainment reasons rather than commercial. Too many to list (or find),
but a few examples below.

In The Morning Breakfast jingle:
[https://clyp.it/1jlijg2g](https://clyp.it/1jlijg2g)

See Something, Say Something:
[https://clyp.it/hcjt1i2g](https://clyp.it/hcjt1i2g)

Uber Spies acapella: [https://clyp.it/wgpj4jjh](https://clyp.it/wgpj4jjh)

Don't Look Over Here (Nothing To See Here):
[https://clyp.it/on2d3pf3](https://clyp.it/on2d3pf3)

Monsanto: [https://clyp.it/ayuf1scs](https://clyp.it/ayuf1scs)

------
posterboy
> to be a pepper too

fixed

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12388563](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12388563)
and marked it off-topic.

