A recent article in The Wall Street Journal decried the demise of the jingle. It is argued that because of the shrinking size of commercial time there was no room for the jingle. I must regretfully agree that the jingle has fallen on hard times, but I’m not sure I agree with this reasoning. This is a more complex matter. As a matter of fact, the shrinking size of commercials should be the reason for a resurgence of jingles.
I knew jingles were in trouble when I first heard the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish radio spot. The jingle, that tiny tuneful war horse, seller of powders and potions, toilet bowl cleansers and feminine hygiene products, that bastion of banality, had sunk to new depths of derision and ridicule. Here was a silly ditty with a lyric in the spirit of the It’s Gary Shandling’s Show song where the words tell us, "This is the song for Goldfish." The jingle was now truly dead, left to the scavengers of parody.
I will confess that I am not really a big fan of the jingle. When I say jingle, I mean ditties, like the Oscar Mayer Weiner tune or the "I’m stuck on Band-Aids" opus. Yes, there is kitsch appeal to this music but I prefer songs with a little more resonance and length. I confess I have written a few jingles in my day, but I can honestly report that none of my clients ever asked me to write a jingle. Most times they would implore me to write something that didn’t sound like a jingle. Of course with the parameters they gave me, a jingle was inevitable.
Most people would define a jingle as any song that sells a product. That’s not really accurate. Richard Strauss’ "Also Sprach Zarathustra," "The Mexican Hat Dance," or James Brown’s "I Feel Good" have been used countless times to sell products. Are they now jingles? I define the jingle as an original song, albeit short, that is in some way involved with selling a product. Yet "The Heartbeat of America," "Be All That You Can Be," "Reach Out and Touch Someone" don’t sound like jingles to me. What would I call them? Songs or advertising has a nice ring.
There are good jingles and bad jingles. What is a bad one? A jingle that doesn’t sell the product it extols is certainly a bad one. Arrangers feel that those little tunes that can easily be morphed into any style, because of their intrinsic musicality, are the good jingles. In the world of advertising must artistry be secondary to efficacy? I don’t buy that. A good writer can pen refreshing, interesting, original and "hip" songs that do have intrinsic merit and still sell product. Most of my fellow songwriters—who happen to write jingles to support their piano tuners—would tell you they do their best to write good, interesting, fresh jingles (pardon the expression), that sell and they do, when the concept they are based on is good, interesting and fresh. Are all jingles bad because of their mercenary natures? Shakespeare’s plays were blatantly mercenary. Many were written to pander to English nobility. Are jingle writers artless just because they pander to CEOs? Much art is created for less than lofty reasons. If a jingle writer is pricked, he too doth bleed.
Advertising is a fashion-driven business with a "heard" mentality. We want music that has been heard recently or sounds like something we’ve heard. There is a great fear of the unknown in our business. I believe the need to be "trendy" is actually the need to follow less risky avenues. "What is not hip is not relevant," This is a foolish and a very counterproductive misconception. An effective sales tool (a song for advertising) is relegated to local used car commercials because a whole genre is considered "unhip" by those who so desperately want to be hip. I agree with Linda Kaplan Thaler that sometimes the cutting edge is not on the cutting edge. So much of what is defined in America’s youth culture as hip is based on the aesthetics of 15-year-olds.They have not been the majority for quite some time. Boomers rule, man.
I digress; this is about time and Goldfish.
A while back I happened to see a new Goldfish spot. It had been at least two years since I heard that first one on the radio. Now I see two large Goldfish swimming around their oversized bag and I hear that silly parody jingle for the umpteenth time, yet the lyric has changed. It is no longer making fun of itself. It is earnestly hawking the virtues of those cheesy little crackers, just like a regular old jingle. The light went on. I saw the truth. The damn thing was working, working past its kitsch, selling those fishies right off the shelves. What started out as a joke had now taken on a life of its own. The fish were happening, they had a musical identity all their own, granted a bit inane, but obviously effective. This spot had legs (or fins, to be precise). Here is a tool with great impact. You could say that the silliness of the song is what gives it its appeal. We are past silliness here. We are into branding. Goldfish have been musically branded forever.
A sung spot doesn’t have to be silly to have impact. You can pick your poison; it can be fun, it can be sexy, it can be edgy, heroic. You can brand your product. Brand it with something new, never heard before, original. If you choose your composer wisely, you could set your product up for life.
There is, however, one caveat. For original songs to work, there must be good ideas to spawn them. These little devils will wreak their havoc like killer bees, but they can only survive on ideas. Many times, in lieu of an idea, advertisers will buy a song just for its recognizability. I am in no way suggesting that using existing songs is wrong thinking. "Like a Rock" is used brilliantly. I would guess a whole generation thinks that song was written just for Chevy Trucks. But more times than not, existing songs are stuck to some product in a tenuous way in hopes that recognizability will automatically sell product. Sometimes a million dollars is spent where, for hundreds of thousands less, an original song could be used to much greater effect.
It is for that reason I believe a jingle, or a song for advertising, would have more value in shorter time frames than plain old copy. I still remember—"State Farm is there … ." But I forgot now. Is Dial soap 99 percent caffeine-free or beechwood-aged? It is difficult to have any impact in fifteen seconds. A good strong hook, a memorable melody goes a long way to maximizing that impact.
There are many ways to sell soap. To ignore one important advertising tool for fear of taking a risk or because of prejudge against an entire genre is very bad business. In the bigger picture, everyone should want to break new ground, not follow the pack. These are dangerous times with shorter attention spans. Let’s really be hip, like Pepsi ("The Joy of Pepsi") and Budweiser ("This Bud’s For You"). Let’s take some risks and rise above the dull roar of copied music and copied ideas with uncopied original music.
