Who Killed Jingles?

*Lightning strikes outside the window*

Take a seat. Thank you for agreeing to meet me in the foyer on this dark and stormy night. I wish we could be meeting under better circumstances, but I regret to inform you that the reason you’re here…is that someone in this room is a murderer.

*Lightning strikes outside the window*

Settle down! All will be explained in due time. You see, it was brought out that the untimely death of commercial jingles was no accident. We’ve been gathering the evidence and there is no question that there was foul play. The time of death? Sometime in the mid-90s. Yes, we’ve been gathering evidence for 30-ish years. We’re thorough.

Jingles used to be a staple of the advertising world. They were so full of life, appearing at the end of just about every commercial and leaving a catchy tune in your head that you’d remember later when you saw that same product at the grocery store. For a time they were beloved by all who knew them. And their light was snuffed out by the monster in this very room. 

They were once the backbone of the advertising world. They were so valuable that Charlie Sheen’s character in “Two and a Half Men” was able to buy a Malibu beach house just by writing them. Now they’re barely an afterthought. Pretty much every brand had a jingle. Now it’s mostly just Folgers.

But all will be revealed! This tangled web we weave has left the culprit nowhere to run. They probably thought they got away with it (likely because murder happened 30-ish years ago), but when the method and motive are laid out for all to see, there will be nowhere for them to run.

*Lightning strikes outside the window*

Changing Ad Formats

The only constant is change, and ad formats have changed quite a bit since the heyday of jingles, which started in the 1950s and lasted until probably the 1980s. Today we have digital ads, and social media, and YouTube, and CCTV, and all kinds of other stuff, but back then, any ad that had an audio or video element was the ultra-coveted 30-second TV and radio ad. And they were oftentimes longer.

The important reason is that jingles typically weren’t used as one-offs. They became synonymous with the brand, almost like taglines. Regardless of the campaign, the ad would end with your jingle. And jingles take up time.

Today, with all the social ads, YouTube ads, and CCTV ads like we just mentioned, most of the video ads you see today are shorter than 30 seconds and don’t leave enough time for a jingle. If you have a six-second YouTube preroll ad, if you play a jingle, that’s going to be the entire ad.

It’s entirely possible that the untimely demise of jingles in advertising was not a murder at all, but rather a crime of circumstance. An accident. They were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were unfortunate enough to be born into a world cruel enough to have video ads that were only six seconds long, and there was just no place for them.

It’s certainly a likely explanation…and one I’m sure that everyone in this room would have me believe. Oh, how convenient! No one is guilty and we can all go home. A likely story. A lesser detective would’ve been satisfied by that explanation, but I dug deeper.

A Shift to Popular Music

A lot of the shift away from jingles can be attributed to an increase in the use of popular music in ads. In the late 20th century, ads started incorporating popular music instead of writing original jingles. And you might be thinking, could commercially popular music really replace the value created by a painstakingly crafted, earworm of a jingle? Apparently yes.

There were a few reasons for this change. First, apparently it works in an advertising sense. Research indicated that people paid more attention to ads where there was familiar music. Advertising is an art, but at the end of the day, it’s also a means to an end. And that end is getting people's attention. Although there were undoubtedly plenty of jingle purists among creative departments in the 80s and 90s trying to hold the line, pitching jingles for every single ad, even print ones, they ultimately lost out to what was a more effective strategy. 

The second reason is that the “sell-out” stigma began to wear out around this time. It may be difficult to believe given the fact that you’ve probably seen 10 ads starring Kevin Hart just today, but a celebrity being in an ad used to be a taboo, reputation-destroying endeavor. People thought that being in an ad meant that you were overly commercialized and therefore less of an artist. Celebrities and musical artists were still in ads of course (What are they going to do, not take a pay check?), but they only did ads that their primary audiences would never see. The “sell-out” stigma is the reason we got Michael Jackson doing ads for Suzuki mopeds in Japan.

But eventually there was a kind of watershed moment where it became “okay” for celebrities to be in commercials, and therefore their music. It’s unclear exactly how this happened, but probably one brave soul in the 80s saw a paycheck from Ram Trucks or something that was too big to pass up and then everyone followed their example. 

The third reason–and this is very important–is that using music that already exists…is easy. It’s arguably much easier than writing and producing an original jingle. We don’t like to say this that much, but sometimes people who work in advertising can be lazy. You’re going to tell someone they can choose between up something people will like when they can just use something they already know people like? Good luck.

Taste is Cyclical

Another possibility is that although jingles had their day and were generally liked, taste is largely cyclical. People eventually just got tired of them. 

Today, jingles are considered by-and-large to be cheesy. They’re considered something that immediately dates whatever ad they’re in. And if tastes are indeed cyclical, one would hope that jingles will be able to rise from the ashes, but it’s also possible that they’ll forever be considered trite and dated.

The Stunning Conclusion

Now that we’ve laid out all the evidence, the conclusion becomes impossible to ignore. The murderer, the one who killed the use of jingles in advertising, was none other than YOU, dear reader.

*Lightning strikes outside the window*

Geez this lighting is crazy. No one left anything outside, did they?

That’s right. It was you all along. And you thought you’d gotten away with it. You thought you could blame it on the fact that most ads are too short for jingles now, or the fact that ad agencies made conscious decision to use popular music, or some notion that taste is cyclical. Therefore, it was inevitable that jingles would exit stage left from the public lexicon. But all those contain one simple truth that was your undoing.

The content of every ad is at least on some level a reflection of what the consumer wants.

Jingles were killed by the very fact that you wanted them dead. If you wanted more ads with jingles in them, they would be here. That bead of sweat forming on your brow reveals your true nature: a monster. Constable! Take them away.

Ah, it appears there is no constable because this is a blog. We’ll end things here and trust you to do the right thing and turn yourself in to the proper authorities post haste.

*Lightning strikes outside the window*

Have your own thoughts about jingles in advertising? Or do you even see them making a comeback in your ads? Schedule a meeting below and hang out at our office where no one has ever been murdered. No murder here. Just coffee. *Lightning strikes* And office dogs. *Lightning strikes* And a conference room. *Lightning strikes*