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How Commercial Jingles Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Have you noticed
• 0:17
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• 0:21
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• 0:24
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• 0:32
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• 0:35
  Speaker 1: D one and I keep you know, we do two
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• 0:46
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• 0:50
  Speaker 1: did change once the first time. Well, today you have
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: on your mystery signed feed at three thousands. Shout out
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to Kevin and Bill. Yeah, guys, you're listening. You know, everybody, Mike, Joel,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: anybody ever had anything to do with that show. TV's
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Frank who's now a successful tweeter. Yeah, I don't know
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: if you follow him. He's he's pretty liberal. You know.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Joel went out and did his own thing as well.
• 1:14
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• 1:18
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• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Tracks is Mike's. Uh yeah, I'm I'm all aware, you know. Um,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Robert Lamb interviewed Joel Hodgson on and there's like a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: really awesome, lengthy blog interview on the stuff to blow
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: your mind blog cool check it out. Yeah, so that's
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the intro for commercial jingles, which is what we're talking about. UM,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I really don't have anything except chuck. Have you ever
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: heard of a little uh songwriter named Lynn Duddy? Nope?
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I had neither. Apparently Lynn Duddy out the I Love
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Bosco jingle, which I've never heard before, but it's listed
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: as a famous jingle, So I feel like I'm missing out.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't know the actually I Love Bosco jingle. That's
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: the one that we list. What's with this? And Barry
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Manelo wasn't in here, no, which let's just get that
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: out of the way. Hanelo, Who I love? You mean?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I have seen him front Row Center in Vegas. It
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: was an awesome show. Did he he looks so scary now?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I he's a great guy. I don't know if I
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: want in front Rows all I'm saying, he h. It
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: was cool. He said something to me, I had to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: go to the bathroom, and I like went and left
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: in the middle of one of his songs, and while
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: he was singing, didn't miss a beat. He says to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: my back, don't leave now it gets better, And then
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: just like went into the song yeah, and you was like, man,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: did Josh Yeah? Did you hear it? Did you know
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: it was? I didn't hear. I came back and she
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: was still like, oh my god, did you hear? Yeah?
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But Barry Manelo, in addition to his incredible singing career,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: also is um one of the better UM commercial jingle
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: writers of all time. Yeah, performed and co wrote h
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: jingles like like a good neighbor state farm is there?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: That's a big one. Man. They're still using that stuck
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: on the band aid because the band aid stuck on me.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: That's huge. Grab a bucket of chicken. I haven't heard
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: that one. Grab a bucket of chicken. It was like seventies. Yeah,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and that that was for KFC, obviously, and you deserve
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a break today at McDonald's Big one, And he apparently
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: recently did one for Dodge. I saw Randy Newman obviously.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: He writes whatever pays the most. He wrote a bunch
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: back in the day. And then this guy Jim Brickman,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: who made quite a name for himself with ads like
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: We're flint Stone's Kids. Oh yeah, for the vitamins. I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: used to love those, but um, every once in a
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: while my mom just buy the cheaper knockoff ones and
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the difference in taste. So there is a spell where
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: like she would find like sticky knockoff flint Stone vitamins
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: like in my Lincoln Logs, just stuck to things because
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I'd just be like, yeah, I just put it in
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: my Lincoln Logs because I guess throwing it away was
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: too difficult. It's pretty good, but yeah. And then of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: course Lynn Duddy and Brickman's other big one was Gere
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Good Things to Do. You know how rich these people
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: must be if they had even just a halfway decent agent. Well,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it points out on this article. I don't know if
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: it's still the case, but if you wrote the jingle,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you own the rights to it. I know, I don't
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: know if that's still it seems like it should be.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: I guarantee you Manilow owns the rights to the ones
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that he wrote. He didn't need a dour, but he
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: still does, although he likes to cancel once in a while.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: He just came I had tickets for his Atlanta show. Really,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: he just cancel it. Cancel I'm not playing sorry, huh
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: they are? Oh really Yeah that's pretty lame. Yeah, I thought, well,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I hope he's all right. I was really into Barry
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Manly when I was a kid, I know, for someone
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: who ended up being like fairly cool with my music, daste.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I've got great music taste too, and I love Yeah. No,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying, all right, let's get into this, okay,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: So Chuck, what is a commercial jingle? It's one of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: these things that you know, you anybody can define it,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: but it's actually a little specific. Uh yeah, Well it
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: is a song or a snippet um of a hopefully
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: memorable melody written about a product. And that's the original jingle.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: We'll get into how it's changed over the years. So. Um,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: it can have just about anything in it, like a
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: slogan like like a good neighbor, state farmers there. It
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: can have a phone number like a hundred five hundred
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Empire today, Yeah, good going. Um. It can have a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: call letter like NBC. Yeah, that is um I looked
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: into that. That is what they now call audio branding
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: or an audio logo. Um, like the sound of your
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: computer makes when you open it. You know, Apple has theirs,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: PC said theirs or the ding ding ding from NBC
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: like you just said, but that's a big business now,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Or that jingle like who can never get rid of
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: that one once it's in your head. Uh, but that's
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: a new thing. Like that's even more specific now than
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: jingles are what they call audio branding. And every time
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I hear the word branding, a little piece of me die. Um.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: But the dude from the Human League, remember that band? Ye,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: he has a company now that's like getting rich doing this. Yeah.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Basically it's a little more complex in a jingle because
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: they're trying to capture like the essence of your brand
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: with a few notes maybe or in the case of
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: like an LG dryer instead of hearing at the in
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: it plays this little melody. It's like laundrys time. No,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: what is that? Uh No, it's a little melody, like
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a little dinging chiming melody. Who who was it that
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: wrote the Yahoo one Yahoo man? Who was that? We
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: were just talking about that recently? How was the guy
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: who wrote? Uh? Oh man, I can't remember. Oh, well,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: somebody right in it was a previous podcast that's less
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: than two months old. It's all gone now. Uh alright,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: So anyway, that's audio branding. But oh we left out
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: one other, one other part of a jingle. It can
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: also tout the benefits of a product. Yeah, especially back
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: in the day, that was huge. Like you'll wonder where
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the yellow went when you brush your teeth with PEPs
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: it in Really you're not familiar, No, I remember the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: crest Um the Crest Patrol. Yeah, we make holes and teeth.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Remember that? No? That that? Oh man, I wish I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: would look this stuff up. In the seventies, that was
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the cartoon of the Crest, I remember that. Yeah. And
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: then there were the the the yup mouse who were
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the bad people in that? I don't remember. The enemies
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: were the ones we make holes and teeth, the cavity creeps.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: I know, the cavity creeps. Alright, I'm firing on all
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you know. Um. I remember being in like third grade,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I think, and we got a bunch of promotional materials
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: from the Crest Patrol and it included a play of
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: which I was I think a toothbrush talk about infiltrating schools,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: like we put on a play about the Crest Patrol
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in school. Wow, that is weird. It's a little weird,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: So Chuck Jingles. They've been around since the Egyptians, as
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I understand it, that is not true. Technically, it is
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: true because the Egyptians were around in the nineteen thirties.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Funny Guy Christmas Eve six they have credited the um.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: The Wheaties Quartet was singing about the Wheaties Breakfast Cereal
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: first ever jingle, UM, And apparently Wheaties was in pretty
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: bad shape and they're even gonna get rid of it
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: until they noticed that in markets where they were playing
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: this song on the radio, Wheaties picked up and they said, hey,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: maybe this jingles. Maybe he's got something to it. And
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: they probably call it a jingle at the time. UM.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: And then they put it nationwide and Wheaties was saved. Yeah.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Have you did you listen to it? No? Is it
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: pretty bad? No, it's great. It sounds like the b Sharp's,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you know, it's barbershop quartet. It sounds like Baby on Board, Yeah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: except singing about Wheaties. So that whole Wheaties thing is
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: pretty well established, but some still dispute it. And it
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: depends on how you look at, um what a jingle is, um,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: whether that's the first one or not. But there's a
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: song that was written in nineteen o five called in
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: My Merry Old Mobile, like Gus Edwards and Vincent Brian
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and I didn't realize that people were named Vincent back
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: in nineteen o five. Does that seem like a modern name.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It seems more like nineteen forties to nineteen seventies. Maybe
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: maybe you know there's a website that charts popularity of
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: names in a graph. I believe that I bet you
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Vincent is pretty low back then. Um, but those two
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: guys made in My Mary Oldsmobile and Oldsmobile used it
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in the thirties, but it wasn't originally recorded or written
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: four Oldsmobile to use. I think the guys just really
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: like their Oldsmobile and so um. The author of this article,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Tim Faulkner, points out that you're probably more accurately call
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: it the first pop song licensed for commercial use. Okay,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: that makes more sense. So it's technically not a jingle.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: So the Weaties Quartet still stands Christmas Eve, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Is there any place more desolate than Hey it worked, yeah,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: because we still have wheaties today. So the whole reason
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Jingles came about was because you know, I'm all about
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: my like nineteen thirties consumer history. Yeah, and like in
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: in the thirties, like consumer protection was like way stronger,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: and one of the things was direct advertising was very strict.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: So funny now yeah, it's so like no holds bart
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Now you know Australia is like going to town like
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: preventing direct marketing to kids. Yeah, they're really protecting their kids.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It is very cool. Plus beer you can only market
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: here exactly. If you remember when there used to be
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: like cigarette ads and oh yeah, cutty sark ads and
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: things like that. It's funny to look through. Uh if
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you go like to uh antique places and they have
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: old life magazine stuff, you just look at the ads
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and it's like these happy people slowly killing themselves with merits.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Um So. But in the in the thirties, like if
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: you wanted to get an ad on the radio, you
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: pretty much had to buy some time like a half
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: hour or an hour and put on a pro rim
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and Hence we have things like the King Biscuit Flower
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Hour you know um, or the General Motors Um car
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Thriller Mysteries, you know whatever. And at first I think
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: it was really boring and dull and dumb. And they
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: figured out that consumers were a little more savvy and
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: we're not really willing to share their time for something
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: that's just an ad like an infomercial, right, so they
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: started to make things like the Shadow and Little or
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: fanany um, and they made them so they could advertise.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: But eventually it gave us radio programming and then ultimately
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: TV programming. As we understand it today, we're basically born
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: out of this desire to advertise to radio listeners in
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the thirties. Pretty cool, yeah, um. And I didn't realize this,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: or I realized, I guess, But it's just hard to
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: imagine these days because it's so advertising is so all
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: over the place. But back then, you had direct to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: consumer sales one on one you go to a store,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: or you have a traveling salesman come to your house
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to sell a vacuum cleaner or whatever. And the ads
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: back in the day, uh kind of bore that out.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: They were basically real matter of fact and kind of
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: dry and really just bullet bullet pointed, how our product
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: is better than the other's, very boring, very dry, Like
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: our spats are better than our competitors spats because they're
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: made with virgin baby goat skin. That's right. But with
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the popularity of radio, things changed and they realized that
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: jingles uh could make a real impact, you know, and
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: they did because it's music, as the Wheaties Quartet proved
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: pretty early on. Um, and just right out of the gate,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: people started really paying attention to this, and they brought
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the field of psychology in and psychology started cranking out
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: books that basically guided advertisers and companies on how to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: reach these audiences like who's listening when, and like how
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: to talk to them and um yeah. But they just
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: basically exploded overnight, and it was all largely thanks to
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: the jingle. Yeah, and you know, the early on and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I think it still holds true today. If you want
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: to be a successful jingle, it's got to be very simple.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You gotta have a repetition. Um, you gotta have Rhyming
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: is good, it is, It helps stick in your head
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: a little more and before you know it, it's become
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: part of your consciousness for like life, like they point
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: out here in the article the Oscar Meyer uh Bolognay song,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Like anyone who grew up in the seventies can sing
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: that word for word today unless you just weren't paying
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: attention as a kid. Do you want to sing a
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: little of it? Well? Now do you know Bologne has
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: a first name? It's O S c A R. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the plot plot fiz fizz. Oh, what a relief. It
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: is like these things get burned into the collective consciousness.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: But um costanza, what's that from Seinfeld? Remember? Like George
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: gets a girlfriend because he uh, he associates his name
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: with that by men, and he goes Stanza and the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the woman doesn't even like him, but she can't get
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: him out of her head because that castanzas in there,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: which you would call an earworm, which we've talked about
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: it feels like before, right, I think so, But we
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: may as well talk about the or verm. Is that
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: in German it's or verm and everyone knows it what
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: an earworm is. It's when it a song or a
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: part of a song gets stuck in your head. Sometimes
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: an explicably splica inexplicably, something weird got stuck in your head.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Like you wake up in the morning and the song
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: is in your head. You hadn't heard it in weeks, months, years,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: who knows, but it's just there. And they don't really
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: know how it works either. No, but a couple of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: very smart guys in the seventies got together. Their names
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: were Alan Badly and Graham Hitch, and they I think
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: they're responsible for coming up with the idea of the
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: working memory. Well they went on to write The Hustle Um,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: but the Badly and Hitch first, Um, I guess I've
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: investigated working memory. And they came up with this thing
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: called the the phonological loop, right, which is an earworm
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: or a snippet of music or a a sentence, whatever,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: it's running around. You can almost see it facing this
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: track in your head over and over again. That's the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: phonological loop. And it's made of two parts, right, the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: phonological store, which is your inner ear which here's it,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and then the articulatory rehearsal system, which is you're driving
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: yourself totally insane by saying it over and over repeating.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: It's how we learned to talk or learn a foreign language. Um,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: and they think that this phonological um loop is basically
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: an earworm, hitching a ride on this neurological process that
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: we have naturally and basically exploiting it for commercial purposes. Wow,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: happens more in women, supposedly, more musicians supposedly, And if
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you have O c D. It might really present a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: problem with you. That was a really good episode of ours.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: If you ask O c D. We talked about David
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Sedaris licks light switches. I think yeah, in his book
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: he did. I don't know if that's real. I think
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: it is, though, Um, how to get rid of an earworm?
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: There's all kinds of things you can try, like actually
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: hearing the song in full um, Like, Um, if you
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: can't get call me maybe out of your head, right,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: just go listen to call me. Maybe sometimes singing it
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: yourself all the way through. You can do it. You
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: could sing call me. Maybe you could vanquish it from
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: your mind. But there's really no sure fireway that those
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: are justiciable tricks. I heard someone say something about listening
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: to rush, We'll get rid of its? Was that what
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it was? Because you just gets smart? Right? Um? Who's
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: professor Colaris. So he's the one who's basically he's a
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: University of Cincinnati professor. He's in the ear Warm article, okay,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and he has dedicated his career to basically exploring earworms
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: figuring out how to how they work. Um, I think
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: he's made a name for himself in it. He appears
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: in not one, but two how Stuff Works articles. So
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: he's arrived. So what he's done, um through surveys, he said,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: it's obviously all up to the person is very individual
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: as far as what songs get stuck in your head.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: But he put together, through some surveys what he calls
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the playlist from Hell, and I would have to agree,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I'd like to see this updated because it's a little
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: dated a little bit. I mean, I'm sure that One
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Party Rock is gotta be at the top of the list.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know that One Party Rock is in the
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: pust to not do that at all. You're there's it's
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: literally impossible that you have not heard party Is it
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: a song? Yes, I have not heard it. I will
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: play it for you. You'll be like, oh, okay, is
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: it like a pop swan? Yeah, it's not a commercial.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: It's everything. It's inescapable. It is the alpha and it's
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: just not possible. You haven't heard it all right, But
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: his playlist from Hell includes uh, the baby back ribs,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Chili's jingle which we won't even say out loud, the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Bajamans who let the Dogs out. That's a good one. Queens,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: we will rock you. That's another good one. That's a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: good one. But I don't, I don't know. That doesn't
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: strike me as particularly you're wormy. Um, give me a break.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: It's a good one to ki at bar Uh the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Mission Impossible theme. I think it's funny that this is
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: on here because I had an experience with that when
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I lived in New Jersey. It was when I think
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the first Mission Impossible movie came out in YouTube did
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the update of the theme. That thing was stuck in
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: my head for like three days. I was walking around
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: just going done up corners really quick and like looking
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: around doing a tuck and roll. It was crazy. So
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it didn't surprise me to see that on here. Y
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: m c A, there's nothing wrong with that. I kind
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: of like this playlist. I wouldn't call it from Hell,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I'd call it maybe from hack at Best. Okay, Um,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Now I do hate. Um, the Lion Sleeps Tonight. I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: hate that song. I think that's probably on there for
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the very fav womb there it is by Tag Team
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and other good It's a Small World. I guess that
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: one because you go to Disney World and you just
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: hear it over and over and over. Um, what ride
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: is that? It's a Small World? Is that the name
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: of the ride too? Yeah? I think so. It's been
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a while, but yeah, so, Um, there's still plenty of
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: jingles out there. I'm trying to think of a of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a new jingle. Well, they're they're all over um sports radio.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because I listened to a lot of sports
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: talk and me and my lead guitarist Eddie who you
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: know Eddie Eddie Cooper. Uh, we have been joking around
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: about doing um, like a medley of radio jingles in
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: our set, because if you listen to sports radio, man,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: it's like the same ones like what well, looky, looky, looky,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: here comes cookie alarm Force. I haven't heard that one.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Alarm Force. Ah. Oh man, I can't think of them,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean there's just like if you listen
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: to any kind of sports radio, it's like the same ones.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: The had that always sticks out to me when I
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: think of like sports radio, talk radio. Is that one
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: guy who's he's like trying to sell like some sort
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of um REFI like, he's a refinance guy. He's like,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: it's the biggest no brainer in the history. Or if
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: you've heard and this isn't even a jingle but a
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: full on song, if you heard any of the Blue
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Belt ice cream commercials, I don't know, it's pretty great. Oh,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I mean they're all different, but it's all like this
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: guy singing about like you know, country morning and the
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: sound of birds chirping, and it's like the sound of
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: coming home is what you taste when you eat Blue
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Belt ice cream, which is a lie. Um. But like
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: you said, they sort of have gone out of fashion
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: a little bit at least from the heyday, even though
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: they're still around. Yeah, they still they are viewed somewhat
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: as hokey. I think if you stop and think about
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a commercial jingle or the concept of a jingle, it's hokey,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: even though you probably have five hundred of them in
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: your head that you could recall at any moment exactly.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: But yes, if you are say, um, the company responsible
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: for running VW's advertising campaign. You're probably not going to
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: use a commercial jingle. You're trying to go the other route,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: which is to appropriate a pop song. Yeah, and the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: v WS case, they used Nick Drake, which great one,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the song Pink Moon. Yeah, that's how I came to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: find out who Nick Drake was. That's how a lot
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of people came to find out. And that's what the
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: article points out as a lot of times they can
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: resuscitate careers, although in his case he passed away, but uh,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: he definitely like was way more popular after that commercial
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: than he was before. Um. Stereo Lab was also VWA.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Uh who else? Um. I don't think they needed any help,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: but it was like a perfect fit. The Polyphonic Spree,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they had that there. I can't remember the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: name of the song was like their huge hit. Um
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: that was on a VW commercial, Like when VW first
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: came out with the New Beatle Hey and shout out
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: to a Toby right yeah, Toby he he's shooting him
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: feature film right now? Yeah in Louise Na, Like he's
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: shooting it. Yeah. Toby's a friend of Josh and Yummis
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: who was in the Polyphonic Spree. And now he is
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Ah did he really? I don't think I knew that. Yeah,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: he was like, uh, friends with a couple of them
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and said, hey, you know, I want to be in
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the band. What do you need? And they're like, how
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: about Theoreman? And back then anyone could be in the
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Polyox Spree and it was huge, it was extensive. Um.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And he went out and bought a Thereman and taught
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: himself how to play it and came back. I was like, ah,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want to be in and he like went
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: to Japan. Um like toured the world with the with
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the spree for a while. That's the spree. Yeah, Um,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: that's awesome. And he's making a movie now. Yeah, well
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: you know they had that short he produced one Ye
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: starring Bonnie Prince Billy. It's amazing. Now they're onto something else.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: It's like a feature film the same same company. Um. Anyway,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: pop songs getting back to that, Uh they credit the Beatles,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: UM seven Nike commercial. I would Nike famously use Revolution.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Do you remember that. Yeah, it's kind of starting this
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: whole new wave of let's use like pay a lot
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of money to use really popular songs because it's not
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: enough anymore. You can't say our brand is better than yours.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: You like, you want to identify your brand with a uh,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the public consciousness and a lifestyle like um, that Cat
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Stephen's song Wind of My Soul and like the Timberland
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: ad that kind of struck where it's like, put these
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: shoes on and you will automatically went for that. I
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: am too. I'd like to look into that. I wonder
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: if he doesn't have the rights. It doesn't seem like
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: something he would do. There's no way he doesn't have
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: the rights to the song. But um, it is kind
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: of you. You raise a point like it is surprising
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: that he would have gone for that. But apparently if
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: you work on artists long enough, or just wait for
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: them to grow old and need money, they will eventually
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: cave or think he didn't need the money. But who Sting? No,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I doubt if he did it because he needed the money.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I guess that's right. He has a castle. He did
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: it for a reason though, and it was probably money.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Um So in the eighties when Sting was still because
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you know the Police started out as a punk band, yeah, um,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and in the eighties it was postpunk, but Sting still
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: thought of himself as a pretty cool dude, and apparently
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know the company, but they approached Sting and said, hey,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: we want to use don't stand so close to me
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: for our deodoric commercial. It's a terrible idea, and he
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: very wisely said no way. But then Jaguar said, hey,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you know this terrible desert rose thing you have going on,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: we want to use that for our egg campaign and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Sting said, way right. The cheers to that, uh and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: that's a big you know, bands get accused of selling
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: out uh less these days, I think because especially smaller bands,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: you just you know, you people think music is free now,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: so that making money selling records like they used to.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: They break even on tours, these small bands, So I like,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: I've done a one eight. Used to think like, I
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: don't sell out, but now I'm like, dude, make whatever
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: money you can while you can. I know, Band of
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Horses one of my favorite and Jerry's favorites. Um, they
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: were kind of taken in the map by some of
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: their fans because they did they license her movie to Chevy,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and the dude Ben Bridwell came out. It was like, no,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: you know, I drive a Chevy it's old and maybe
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: now I can get the A C fixed. You know,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: he drives an old pickup chucking. He's like, what's what's
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the problem, Like, we're trying to make a little dough here,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and it's a product I believe in, you know. Um
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: they're that part in the movie The Doors where like
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: two Morrissons like off on like whatever for a while
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and comes back and sees that, like, um, light my
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: fire has been Chevy commercially the ray Coniff singers or
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: something doing it, and he's likes catchy tune that starts
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: breaking sty that brings up my my biggest pet peeve
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: today is this new thing and it's not super new
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: because they've been doing it, but it's like worse than
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: it's ever been. When they will take a great classic
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: song and bastardize it and have some like Lady Session
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: singer come in and sing like Satisfaction by the Rolling
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Stones but in a different way and talking about being
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: like satisfied with your you know, your new car, and
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: it's just it's all over the place now and it's
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: just the worst. Like I would rather hear someone licensed
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: their real song then hear them remake it with some
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: awful session singer and change the words to fit their product,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But then that corporation would
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: take the Ben Bradwell stands and Ben Bridwell Ben Bridwell
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: stance and be like, hey man, we gotta make our
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: quarterly earnings. Yeah or not true. I was being totally facetious.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: That doesn't count. It's not the same thing or the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: other thing now that um like, the Black Keys are
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: suing Pizza Hut right now because what companies will do.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: And Tom Waits to sue people a bunch of times,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: like every other year he sees someone because they'll go
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: in and they'll say, give us something, Tom Waits, he
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: or boy listened to Gold on the Ceiling by the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Black Keys, can you do something like that? And these
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you know dudes that write these songs basically rip them off.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: And the Black Keys are watching Pizza Hut and they're like,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, that's my song in a different, slightly
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: different way selling pozzones and so we're going to see
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: you and take you to court. And that's when they
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: get in court and like compare them side by side,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and you know Ray Parker Junior famously yeah, yeah, got
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: messed up because he apparently ripped off I need a
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: new drug. We lose song, that's right, and I never
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: really heard it, and then finally I it clicked and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I was right, Oh wow, that is really sicky. Settled
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: he lost that would be settled or what, But he
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: definitely lost that case. I guess finally we should talk
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit about product placement because, um, but we
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: had a whole product placement episode. Oh yeah, that's right. Well,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: obviously with TiVo and DVRs now, people are speeding through commercials,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: so you are going to find some product placement in
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: your shows, quite possibly our own even it happens. But um,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: there are better ways than others to do it. And
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: if you want a good laugh, go to the YouTube
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: and google soap Opera Cereal and um just watch it's great.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: That's all I'm gonna say. I watched that the other day.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: It's so funny and awful. It's just it's colossally bad.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: But it's so bad that like it's earned a place
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: in the pantheon of pop culture now, so it did
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: his job. Yeah, I bet you. There's a lot of
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: hits on that on YouTube. Honey, what are you doing?
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Just having some delicious hunting that cheerios. Boy, these things
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: really packed in fiber and the thing. It's like a
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: seven minute long scene. Yeah, it was like they just
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: started talking about cheerios the whole time. Yeah, it's pretty funny. Um.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: And there was a little product placement right there for
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: your cheerio. So it's all over the place. Bonus. No,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: I mean just now, no, but I'm saying, jeez, all
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: we did was talking about brands. If we don't cook's
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: pest control is a check. Yeah, we're just combined. Get
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the termites out of my house. I want to check. Um,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: let's see. If you want to learn more about commercial jingles,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: you can type those words into the search bar at
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. And I said search bar,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: which means it's time for listener mail. I'm gonna call this.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: You remember you asked for good uh good causes in
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: the white collar crimes. Yeah, this one was from matthe
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Ands Georgia. Oh hey, so it made the cut. I've
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: been there. Uh love the show, guys. And now a
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: segue into a shameless plug right to the point for
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: a nonpro off it in Athens, Georgia, I represent free
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I t Athens FREDA. It's an all volunteer um nonprofit
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: and it is a grassroots organization dedicated to reclaiming discarded
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: technology like computers, refurbishing it and distributing it to those
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: in need. That's great, it makes perfect sense too. I think,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: in fact, I have some old stuff I could donate.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: He know, there's golden There's like all sorts of rarrors
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: and precious metals that like, if you in the computer
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: bind them like a bunch of computers, you'd have low
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: cold nugget. Yeah, well maybe I'll do that instead. We
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: serve mostly low income populations that cannot afford the latest
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and greatest technology. We also aim to reduced e waste
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: through computer reuse and responsible recycling. We are currently in
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: need of working laptops for a volunteer program. I know
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: a whole room full of them. Seriously, laptops are distributed
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: to volunteers that complete our computer refurbishing program. We're interested
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: in laptop computers that have been aid within the last
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: five years with little to no damage. Donating your computer
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: can change someone with life, and imagine you can write
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: that stuff off. You know, we really should see what
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: they're gonna do with those, see if we can get
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: good to discuss. Uh, donating can change someone's life. I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: already said that, but it can really change someone's life.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Financial donations are also welcome, so you can visit www
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: dot free I t Athens dot org and thank you
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: so much guys. That is from Joel Isler in Athens.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks Joel, appreciate that. It is a very good cause.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: We'll see if we can help. Thank you. If not,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: we're in addition to hopefully there's a lot of listeners
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: in the Athens in Atlanta area that can help. Agreed,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: or people can mail them from all over I'm sure
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: you could, or just go there and give them a
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: little cash, give him tin bucks. Oh yeah, you can
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: do that too. What was it a free I t
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Athens dot org. That's right. Nice. Um. If you have
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: a commercial jingle, we want to hear it. Send us
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a link some great forgotten commercial jingle we want to
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: hear about it, um, or the worst one ever. Yeah,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: let's just start talking about this. Let's get a conversation going.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: you should know, and you can send us an email
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: to Stuff podcast at Discovery dot com. For more on
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Works dot com