Friday, March 24, 2023

Ancient History

I was listening to a podcast about commercial jingles as I cooked dinner last night. Given the fact that my sixth grade classes recently finished a media literacy unit where they produced their own 60 second commercials, I found the content especially engaging. The show explored how jingles first came to be used for advertising and followed their history up to and through the "golden age" of jingles in the 1970s and 80s. 

After that, jingles faded when many companies explored licensing actual pop songs, in hopes that consumer feelings for the artist would transfer to the product. But while the use of those songs was good for the performers, it turned out that the association to what the companies were selling was just not strong enough. Plus, most licenses were only for a few years, which made establishing a long-term connection even harder.

They also explained how about 10 years ago, ads had to evolve to fit new media; think of those 15 second VRBO and Grammerly spots that air before many YouTube videos. With a shorter format, the time it took to cue up a jingle or song no longer made sense, so many commercials cut their musical signature to a half-dozen notes and a voiceover of the hook.

Given all that history, some of the most recognizable jingles today were actually written over 50 years ago, a couple of them by Barry Manilow. And here's where the producers of the podcast shocked me most:

For those of you who don't know Barry Manilow, they actually said, he was a singer-songwriter who was huge in the 1970s and 80s.

Who!

Is

their 

audience?

3 comments:

  1. Hahaha - media will make you feel certain ways about your age for sure. Here in Chicago we have tons of jingles from the 70s and 80s we will never forget! This is all very interesting for sure though - the evolution of it all. Super interesting post - thank you!

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  2. We used to listen to a Barry Manilow album a friend had with a mash-up of all his jingles. #Imnotthetargetaudience

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  3. It’s interesting to learn the reason behind the death of the jingle. So many good ones from the 70’s and 80’s!

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