Whatever happened to jingles?

One of the funniest moments of this year's Academy Awards ceremony (at least to me) was when Neil Patrick Harris sang "He won an Oscar, bum ba-dum bum bum bum bum," to the tune of the Farmers Insurance jingle, after J.K. Simmons, Farmers pitchman, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Proof that jingles work, or at least are memorable -- or more memorable than commercials without jingles.

And yet despite research showing the effectiveness, or memorability, of jingles, few brands today employ them.

Indeed, try to think of a commercial you've seen in the last year that featured a jingle. [I'll give you a minute.]

Anything*?

The only brand the spouse and I could think of, in addition to Farmers, was Nationwide, yet another insurance company, which not only uses a jingle but quarterback and funnyman Peyton Manning to sing it. [Chicken parm you taste so good...]



Actually, while Googling "famous jingles" I came across State Farm's "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." Yet another insurance company!

But is anyone, other than insurance companies, using jingles*?

Back when the spouse and I were kids, and then teenagers, it seems every big brand had a memorable jingle. And everyone knew and sang them.

Fun jingle fact: Did you know that Randy Newman co-wrote, with Barry Manilow, those catchy Dr. Pepper jingles from the 1970s, "The Most Original Soft Drink Ever" and "Be a Pepper"? 

Commercials also had much more memorable spoken hooks. "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature"; "Calgon, take me away!"; and "Ancient Chinese secret" (also Calgon) are three that immediately spring to mind. And apparently they spring to a lot of other people's minds as well, as when you type "ancient" into Google the first suggestion that immediately pops up is "ancient Chinese secret." And when you type in "Calgon," "Calgon take me away" immediately pops up as the first suggestion.


*If you think of something, let me know via a Comment.

Remember when you knew what ads were advertising?

So one of my current favorite ads is the Volkswagen ad with the two guys going on a road trip where one of the guys decides it would be fun to learn Spanish, instead of listening to music.



[This ad cracks me up every time -- probably because I've been brushing up on my French and wish all it took was a long car ride to sound fluent.]

The problem is that despite seeing the ad several times, I had no idea which car Volkswagen was advertising (turns out, the Passat). And I was more inspired to buy a language-learning CD than I was a car. Which, if the purpose of the ad was to sell me a car, means the ad failed. (Though, to borrow a phrase from my daughter, it was not an "epic fail.")

Now not that I buy stuff based on ads, but back in the day, at least ya knew what was being advertised. Today? Not so much. While there are lots of witty/clever ads out there, how many of you when you see a commercial remember what was being advertised a few hours -- heck, a few minutes -- later?

Call me an old fart, but I still remember Star-Kist and Charlie the Tuna.



["Sorry Charlie. Star-Kist doesn't want tunas with good taste. Star-Kist wants tunas that tastes good!"]

And I can still sing "Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us," the old Burger King song. (Though I preferred McDonald's burgers and fries.)



Also, all anyone has to do is sing "meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow," and I immediately think Meow Mix!



And I have a sneaking feeling these ads for Dr. Pepper, featuring David Naughton, may have been partially responsible for my Dr. Pepper addiction.



Anyone else a Pepper?

I could go on and on, but I'd like to open the floor to all of you. Which classic ads do you miss? And do you think advertisers do a better job today of selling stuff on TV or not so much? Leave me a comment.

Jingle blog (Finally, a post you can sing along with!)

Earlier this month there was an interesting -- and thought-provoking -- article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine about bringing back to life "dead" brands. Which, of course, brought to life memories of not only the dead brands mentioned in the article (Fill it to the rim with the great taste of Brim! It's decaffeinated!) and in the comments (Bosco! Sanka!) but other dead or moribund brands, many of which featured catchy and/or memorable taglines or and/or jingles. Which, of course, got me mentally singing or humming said jingles. Which led to this post.

Herewith, my life (and probably a lot of yours' too) as defined by jingles:

I drank Dr. Pepper, and I was proud. (Before that, I felt alone in a crowd.) Us Peppers were an interesting breed. And an original taste was what we needed. But if you look around these days... Well, there no longer seems to be a Dr. Pepper craze.

My beer (at least according to the jingle) was Rheingold the dry beer. I thought of Rheingold whenever I'd buy beer. It was refreshing not sweet. It was the extra dry treat. Only problem is I've never bought Rheingold beer. (But it has a way better jingle than Bass and Otter Creek.)

Of course, if I was having more than one, it would have had to have been Schaefer, the one beer to have when you were having more than one. (Schaefer pleasure doesn't fade when your thirst is done!)

For jeans, workin'... playin'... day or night, Jordache had the fit that was right. (And this just in, Jordache is back -- and better than before, with Lycra (aka spandex)! Btw, if anyone knows where to find a clip of the SNL Jewess Jeans ad, send me the URL.)

My cats ate Meow Mix (meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow), the cat food cats ask for by name! (Though my mother will no doubt chime in that ours never did. Killjoy.)

And every morning, I'd have Chock full o'Nuts, that heavenly coffee. Heavenly coffee. Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy. (As a matter of fact, I've got a can of their French roast right downstairs in the kitchen! An interesting aside: The jingle was created by Bernie Wayne and Bill Silbert, the dynamic duo that gave us, and Bert Parks, "There She Is, Miss America.")

Hold the pickles! Hold the lettuce! Special orders didn't upset the folks at Burger King -- except I really preferred to get my burgers from McDonald's, because, hey, you deserve a break today... and those two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun just tasted better (though I preferred their cheeseburgers -- with a small order of fries and a Coke).

And speaking of Coke, I'd like to buy the world a Coke, and keep it company, but the cost and the travel would kill me.