Jingles - A Century of Lies, Cornflakes, a Chord, and the Return of Pavlov’s Dogs
- Jun 20
- 12 min read
Updated: Jun 26
You are just going to have to deal with this.
Societies are organized by the principles of economics. Yes, the dismal science. This observation applies to the most remote groups in the Amazon and on Sentinel Island, as well as the rarefied crowd that park their yachts in Marina Di Capri and their Lamborghini’s in the Hamptons. The making, trading, selling and acquisition of things and services determines survival at first and ultimately defines the status of individual members of any group. The central question being, do you make it (low status) or do you acquire all you want (high status).
No theory of political economy has better captured this truth than capitalism. All those elegant concepts of supply-and-demand, the invisible hand, labor and capital guide, if not rule, everyday lives, every day. But, none of these complex, academic concepts work unless those things and services created within the political economy are known to those battling for survival within the political economy of their everyday lives. Enter marketing.
At the quarter-mark of the 21st century, we are suffering a plague of marketing. It’s impossible to enjoy any peace without a hustler interrupting your contemplative moment of bliss or your work demands. Tik-Tok has even tested the practice of forcing users to endure TEN advertisements before they reach the content they want. Field tests demonstrated that ten sequential commercials preceding content are too many. But, a captive user-base might put up with five. Ah, there’s the rub….CAPTIVE. More about Pavlov’s dogs later.
Marketing didn’t start out this way. At first it was all about communicating ideas, opportunities, pride, value. At first it was all about welcoming the buyer. But, as the quest for eyeballs and bucks heated up, the goals of communicating about things and inviting people to partake of those things were replaced by marketing designed to achieve one of three objectives.
1) Total Annoyance
The point is to irritate the observer so much that forgetting the name of the product becomes impossible. Create an immortal ear worm. Build and release an army of zombies that keep coming to take your money and eat your brains.
2) Calculated Vagueness
Designed to be inoffensive to everyone - sincere, thoughtful, confident, forward looking, politically correct, and empty of details except the product name. Sometimes the approach is sophisticated. Sometimes it hides under low grade humor. But this approach is always about obfuscation. Make the viewer trust the wisdom of the company, without conveying anything concrete about its product.
3) Spectacular Display
Juvenal described the governance of Rome during the second century CE as bread and circuses. Entertain the masses, show off wealth with a huge spectacular, demonstrating command of the market place and daily life. Distract the masses from all wider concerns of the times. The contemporary version of Juvenal’s observation might be pizza and action movies - a full belly and something to keep your mind off everything important.
In our times, bread and circuses in marketing is accomplished by deploying the most advanced techniques of cinema, animation, CGI, VFX, music and beautiful people engaged in activities that are either physically impossible or simply out of reach for everyday people. The message to be conveyed is that the creator of this ad has so much power in the market that you cannot avoid the product. Resistance is futile. You will ultimately buy this product. No where is the Spectacular Display of marketing more obvious or competitive than half time at the Super Bowl.
You may need a personal loan if you want to run a thirty-second TV ad for your dog walking service during the Super Bowl. The cost runs about $50 million.
[source: Fast Company]
Ad Agency Fee: $3 to $6 million
Talent Fees: $3 to $4 million
Production Cost: $3 to $4 million
Post Production cost: $1 million
Soundtrack License Fee: $1 to $3 million
Cost to Activate on Social Media: $3 to $10 million
Network Air Time Cost: $8 million
Additional Network Media Cost: $8 million (extra advertising required by the network)
Cost of promotion on all media: $5 million
Total cost: $35 to $49 million
The spending rate is $583,333 to $816,667 per second
To make the point about such profligate spending, view this 30-second TV commercial.
Spectacular displays are expensive to pull off. So, they are rare. The core problem with spectacular marketing is that spectaculars loose their power when repeated too many times. Don’t believe me? Go watch Batman movie #23 of the twenty-three released so far. [source: Wikipedia]
Until the 2020s, success of each of the three marketing objectives - annoyance, vagueness and display - depended upon of the marriage of visuals with music to deliver the message. When advertising jingles began, it was all about the music and the lyrics.
To learn the techniques corporations use to create soulless corporate music in order to manipulate you into embracing their marketing message, watch this clip on Tantacrul’s YouTube channel.
Recently I’ve sought refuge from the modern marketing techniques of irritation, obfuscation and display. I happily returned to days of yore – early radio and TV - when marketing simply sought to engage the potential customer. What I learned is that the simple idea of the marketing jingle is compelling and persuasive. It’s the perfect vehicle for a business to invite customers into their product world. Informative, entertaining, memorable, tidy. An entire opera in 30-seconds.
The oldest marketing jingle I could document is a French folk song from the 18th century.
Mort et convoi de l'invincible Malbrough
This jingle wasn’t selling a product so much as national pride. Propaganda is a product too. The lyrics deliver a completely false account of the death of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722) during the War of Spanish Succession at the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709. The French lost that battle. Marlborough was victorious. The war ended with England expanding its naval, military and economic power. France was no better off than it was when the war began. But, no matter. Truth is not an obligatory component of marketing.
The jingle took over French popular culture in the late 18th century. From stables and shops to the royal apartment of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, this jingle rang out. Pieces of the lyrics were tattooed on carriages of the wealthy and silk screened onto hankies. Napoleon was said to hum the tune. Beethoven used the melody to represent the French in his composition Wellington’s Victory.
Over time the tune was embraced by the British, with different lyrics, of course. Eventually the melody crossed the Atlantic. Perhaps the French still sing this 18th century folk tune. I’m not sure about that. But, the Brits do sing For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow and no American campfire can conclude without singing The Bear Went Over the Mountain.
Beware of folk music. Its long term effects are indelible.
Modern day jingles first rode the wave of radio, then television, then the Internet and now social media. During each decade since the first jingle aired on radio in 1926, the marketing vibe changed to capture the attention of the buying public. The “buying public” is the age cohort from 25 – 55. It’s the members of this thirty-year, age span who are the economic drivers of the American economy. They are the focus of advertising jingles.
December 24, 1926
WCCO Radio – Minneapolis, MN
Radio jingles began on Christmas Eve, 1926 when the Washburn-Crosby Company hired a barbershop quartet to sing the praises of their newest cereal, Wheaties, on radio station WCCO.
The members of the quartet were:
William Elliot – an undertaker and manager of the quartet
William R. Hoppenrath – a printer
Ernie Johnson – an executive in a grain company
Phil Schmidt, a bailiff in municipal court (he could also yodel)
The melody came from the 1919 song, She’s a Jazz Baby.
Throughout the next decade, each week, the Wheaties Quartet aired a live, fifteen-minute radio program that always included the Wheaties Jingle. The quartet were paid $100 per show.
For the fascinating history of Wheaties and General Foods, follow this link.
The lyrics are brilliant advertising. They explain the product. Tell you why it’s good for you and why the entire family will enjoy it. All set to a well known melody of the Jazz Age. The jingle may not be exciting a century after its debut. But, this ditty changed the practice of marketing forever.
Ten decades later, the Wheaties jingle echos every time you turn on a radio, TV, pick up a phone or sit at your desk top.
What follows is a sample of the jingles that capture the ever-changing vibe of America during the century since that Christmas Eve when the Wheaties Jingle hit the air.
1930s – learning how radio broadcasting works
The National Broadcasting Company was created in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA was owned by the General Electric Company. Engineers at NBC developed an audio cue to let announcers and network control engineers know that new programming was about to start. The three tones of the NBC Chimes are still in use. It’s even a ringtone option on many phones. The musical tones are members of the C-major chord played in this order: G – E – C. Or.... General Electric Company.
1940s – the big band era
The vocal work mimics the style of the the popular big-band vocal work of Paula Kelly and the Modernaires who sang with the Glen Miller Band. Listen to Glenn Miller’s Band, Paula Kelly, the Modernaires and Tex Beneke deliver I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo. The Pepsi ad was delivering the same vibe as this pop song.
1950s – We’re #1
WWII was over. We won. The USA was on top of the world. Time for an effusion of pride. Change the lyrics a bit and this could be the MAGA theme song. Diana Shore was a big band singer turned TV personality. See the USA in Your Chevrolet was her theme song.
1960s – Who are we?
The 60s marked a disruptive change of cultural icons. The kids of the WWII generation were coming of age and beginning to have influence on advertising for adult products. Jingles of the 60s were a mix of styles. The decade begins with musical styles from big-band and Broadway. It ends with folk rock. A safe candidate to represent the decade is The Oscar Mayer Wiener Song from 1962. The jingle is still in use six decades later. An estimated 49 million people have heard the jingle. The tune has aired in nineteen countries and been featured on a Hallmark card. Six Wienermobiles (now Frankmobiles) continue to tour the USA.
1970s - Peace, Love and Tranquility
In 1971 a multicultural gathering of young people on an Italian hillside lip-synced to a song of love, harmony and hope. The lyrics of the original song (True Love and Apple Pie) were re-written to deliver the commercial message that Coca-Cola is part of the peace and love generation - “it’s the real thing”.
Coca-Cola waived royalties to the song and donated $80,000 to UNICEF.
The New Seekers version of True Love and Apple Pie sold 12 million records. Billboard Magazine ranked the song at #92 out of the 100 best songs of the decade.
I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke is five decades old and still influencing people.
Remember what I said about folk music? Beware! The long-term effects of folk music are indelible.
1980s – New Ways to Boogie
A claymation version of Marvin Gaye’s popular song I Heard It Through the Grapevine, was adapted to sell raisins grown in California to the world. It was HUGE hit.
McDonalds Discovers Rap
The original ad was a huge success. McDonald’s re-tooled the ad to resonate with many different consumer groups.
The 80s were another decade of transition in popular taste. Folk rock goes out. Disco comes in. It was Saturday Night Fever and ABBA. Then it was funk. Hip Hop shows up at the end of the decade. Hard to select a single representative of the period when the definition of the period changes so much. Maybe the best source for the jingle icon of the decade would be to watch the re-runs of Nickelodeon.
1990s – Changing the Internet’s Diapers - Less singing, More barking.
The 90s were marked by the Dot-Com success and collapse, the arrival of the public Internet, a nasty partisan turn in the political environment and the arrival of synthetic, loops substituting for original music. During this decade carnival barkers began to replace singers. Music became background to the message instead of the carrier of the message. CGI took over from actors. Creative focus centered on images and quick cuts to deliver the message.
The bewildering blitz and instability of the techno-decade simultaneously made nostalgia a thing once again. Coke reached back to 1972. They brought the original Hillside Singers back to that Italian hillside, now with their children, to once again sing I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke
In an effort to avoid the chaos, some advertisers shifted to story telling and comedy. The Got Milk campaign is among the strongest examples. With a light touch of Mozart and a comedy skit, in 1993 the California Milk Processor Board (Why is it always California?) launched the Got Milk advertising campaign . The campaign had many variants and ran for a decade:
Johnson’s Baby Oil
Make Me Your Baby -1991
Derived from the Ronettes 1963 hit Be My Baby, the ad was a clever integration of video techniques with a solo female voice to deliver a message aimed at ladies in the now aging, Baby Boomers generation.
2000s – Faux Feelings and Edgy Ideas
Empathy, dynamic visuals and plaintive vocals attempting to persuade you that corporations have feelings, care deeply about you, and always keep your best interests foremost in all their behaviors. The jingle has a Billy Joel or Elton John quality to it, but, lacks the integrity those two artists deliver. Think of Piano Man or Rocket man when you watch the USAir video.
Chocolate Man 2007
The Axe toiletries Chocolate Man commercial sold deodorant and scent. The 2007 ad was created in Argentina. A year later it was released in the UK and the Netherlands. Axe’s website states: We design awesome fragrances so you can smell irresistible. To sell this message their ad agency created Chocolate Man. The concept was simple – young men use our products and young women will find you irresistible, just like chocolate. The ad has no dialog. The visuals and Allen Toussaint’s powerful 1971 ballad Sweet Touch of Love deliver the message.
The film was banned in India for being “indecent, vulgar and repulsive.” The film won gold medals at Cannes Lions in 2008. The Drum (a leading global publisher for the marketing and media industries) rates Chocolate Man as #63 in the 100 best TV and video ads of all time.
Twenty years after the ad debuted it remains controversial. Was this clever or was it sexist and racist? Axe is still in business. It’s part of Unilever. In 2016 Unilever pledged to do away with sexist ads. However you feel about Chocolate Man, there is no denying its unforgettable (or unforgivable?) character.
2010s – Selling to Millennials
Action becomes the message
During one minute the visuals and music of this ad show the evolution of pop culture and the product. “Style never goes out of style”.
2012 Super Bowl Commercial
Music by Fun - We Are Young
Aimed at a young audience thinking of buying their first, new car. Lots of crazy (dangerous) action without consequences. It’s so cool to be young. Why not make your first new car cool just like a Chevy Sonic. There is no story here. It’s all action. The only point is… be daring … be cool.. buy this entry-level Chevy.
2020s
Only halfway through this decade, it’s too soon to pick the jingle or ad icon of the era. It’s also clear that the popular culture of this decade looks messier, darker and less hopeful than any period since the 1920s.
During the early decades of its life, the advertising jingle was communal. It mixed familiar sounds and visuals to deliver a marketing message that could be widely understood and easily shared. This communal aspect lasted almost half a century. By the 70s, advertising and the jingles that support it began to explore the big three techniques: irritate, obfuscate and display.
I’m not calling for a wave of nostalgia, to recoup a lost golden age - ´a la Make Advertising Great Again. Just commenting on the clear trend. Formats of social media are driving the design of brand advertising. Story telling is waning. Jingles are out. Short musical phrases are in – think ring tones, or just machine generated sonic logos. These sounds are tonal. But, absent a story and recognizable dose of humanity, tonality alone isn’t music. Advertising in the 2020s is turning us into Pavlov’s Dogs. We recognize a familiar short sound and drool on cue. Or as Billy Joel sang….. “we’re sharing a drink called loneliness”.
Grim as this decade is, I remain hopeful. Because the arts always transcend the moment. Throughout history the arts have not only endured, their ideas have prevailed. We recall earlier civilizations by the art created in those societies. Generals, politicians and battles live on in history books. But, these tiresome litanies of dates and names do not hold the timeless impact of a finely wrought painting, statue, fresco, poem or melody. I embrace music critic Ted Gioia’s idea that a new age of romanticism is about to begin.
Gioia and other thinkers believe that outside the powerful, narrow minded, selfish, transactional goals of Silicon Valley, venture capitalists and private equity firms; the rest of the world is bloody-well fed up with their algorithms, market-manipulation and insatiable quest for wealth. In Gioia’s mind, a return to the curative power of the arts is inevitable:
“I said that technocracy had grown so oppressive and manipulative it would spur a backlash. And that our rebellion might resemble the Romanticist movement of the early 1800s.
We need a new Romanticism, I quipped. And we will probably get one.”
I’m counting on that backlash and an opportunity to be one of those who try to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. If Gioia is correct, perhaps we’ll all get that chance. The sooner the better.
All we need to pull off this cultural coup d'État is a really good jingle.
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