Idolator: Jingles

Five Kiss Songs That Could Easily Be Turned Into Jingles

Maura Johnston — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:45:00 EDT

The "writing ad-ready songs for the enjoyment of viewers at home and the delight of network accounting departments" reality show Jingles has had its debut, which was scheduled for later this month, pushed back by CBS, but that isn't stopping the network from letting the world know that Kiss bassist and entrepreneur Gene Simmons is going to be one of the show's judges. (I'm guessing he's going to take the acid-tongued "Simon" spot on the panel.) This caused me to think about how Simmons' body of work could itself be employed for the purposes of selling crap that people don't really don't need, via the time-tested "out of context lyric used to shill for a slightly incongruous product" method that so many ads employ these days. Five possible examples of how you could hear Kiss songs during breaks in Law & Order reruns after the jump.

Song: "I Was Made For Lovin' You"
Lyric: "And tonight I wanna lay it at your feet / 'Cause girl, I was made for you / And girl, you were made for me"
Product: Crocs Mary Janes.

Song: "Heaven's On Fire"
Lyric: "Feel my heat takin' you higher / burn with me, Heaven's on fire"
Product: Taco Bell's Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme.

Song: "Lick It Up"
Lyric: "Life's such a treat and its time you taste it / There ain't a reason on earth to waste it / It ain't a crime to be good to yourself"
Product: Haagen-Dazs Reserve Ice Cream. (Especially the Fleur De Sel flavor, mmm.)

Song: "Beth"
Lyric: "You say you feel so empty / That our house just ain't our home / I'm always somewhere else / And you're always there alone"
Product: ADT Security Systems.

Song: "Do You Love Me?"
Lyric: "You like the credit cards and private planes / Money can really take you far / You like the hotels and fancy clothes / And the sound of electric guitars, but / Do you love me, do you love me"
Product: FreeCreditReport.com. And hey, given Courtney Love's recent identity theft issues, maybe the Nirvana version could be used:

If Julie Is Paula, Linda Kaplan Thaler Is Randy [Ad Age]

Idolator Adds Its Special Sauce To McDonalds' Big Mac Jingle Competition

Kate Richardson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EDT

It was only a matter of time before marketing departments dredged up old jingles and forced them through a 21st-century DIY makeover from hell. Case in point: McDonald's "Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun" ditty from the '70s, which is now the subject of an official MySpace competition to see who has the most time to waste on recording their own version of the song. Not wanting to leave any demographic behind, McDonald's has also launched a Spanish version of the website, complete with a translated version of the jingle. Unable to resist the lure of singing the Big Mac jingle in Spanish, I took it upon myself to submit an entry to the "Latino" category. My jingle after the jump.

Kate Richardson's Big Mac Jingle [MP3]

I used a few of the samples from the competition's large audio kit (available for download at the aforementioned MySpace page), but it didn't provide any Spanish-language vocals. So, for better or worse, I had to go ahead and record my own, which I sing in a somewhat embarrassing attempt at a Spanish accent. In the spirit of bilingualism, I spliced in the robotic vocalization of the English-language jingle provided by the kit. The result—my first ever attempt at using GarageBand—sounds like something you'd hear on college radio at 3 a.m., and not in a good way.

I'm confident that my entry won't make it to the semis, but in the unlikely event that it does, I'm depending on Idolator readers to vote it to victory—especially because there's an extra-special aspect to the prize that I think we'd all appreciate:

"Custom billboards and vignettes with a live commercial feel will run within the FN MTV Friday Night Premieres TV show."

And since it's only 30 seconds long, even the reruns will be able to show it in its entirety!

McDonald's Marks Big Mac's 40th With Jingle Contest [Media Post]
Big Mac Chant-Off [MySpace]
Competencia de Canciones Big Mac [MySpace]

A Commenter Call To Action: Let's All Try Out For That Show Where You Have To Write A Jingle

Maura Johnston — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:00:00 EDT

You may remember our previous coverage of the CBS show Jingles, in which ordinary Americans will have the chance to write little ditties about some of America's most beloved consumer products and win $100 grand, thus depriving many indie musicians of a potential revenue source and giving the Tiffany Network a little budgetary wiggle room for some wild Early Show wrap parties. Last night the casting director of the show dropped me a line with news of auditions, and reading it over made me think, "Hey, I could do that." But then I realized that being on TV and blogging would probably kill me, so my next thought was, "Hey, our readers should totally do that!" No, really. All of you reading this are smart, and music-savvy, and you can all put a sentence together. So c'mon guys! Let's get a bunch of teams together and show the people how music is made! (I'm 100% serious about this.)

We are looking for teams of two to three people to write and perform product jingles. A team could be anything from an improv troupe to a singing comedy duo or a hip-hop trio. We are looking for fun, high-energy performances mixed with a competitive spirit. Teams will compete weekly for a chance to win $100,000 and a contract with one of the companies!

We're still locking down audition dates and locations - we will be in New York, Austin, Chicago, Nashville, and LA in late May/early June. However, we're currently accepting submissions, so if you live in/near one of these cities and would like to apply, send an e-mail to Adam for an application and information on how to submit.

Let's do this. You can organize in teams in comments! It could be our lasting contribution to the world, for better or for worse. And at the very least, you all should come up with something as good as this:

(That has to be "Weird Al," right?)

One last bit of inspiration:

Free Credit Report Commercial: Dream Girl [YouTube]
IO Optimum Cable Reggaeton Commercial [YouTube]
Earlier: Jingles coverage

Unappreciated Jingle Writers Want Their Own Grammy

Anthony Miccio — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:45:00 EDT

The Association Of Music Producers is arguing that the NARAS should create two new Grammy awards: one for best original song in an advertisement, and one for best original score. Shouldn't a freestyle regarding the glory of Sprite garner the performer a Clio instead, you might ask? Perhaps, but the AMP feels that the commercial appeal of these jingles proves their artistic merit and the need for the music industry to award their creators. With artists already treating their music's appearance in an ad as an accomplishment in press releases, I suppose it's time for them to start giving themselves trophies for it as well.

While the Grammy campaign is just getting underway and could face a long, hard road to its desired destination, Lyle Greenfield, recently elected AMP's national board president, thinks the timing of such a lobbying effort is ideal in that commercial music is becoming more widely regarded as mainstream entertainment—so much so that major recording artists are embracing the ad discipline, and original music that strikes a responsive chord with audiences is regularly making spots standard fare on YouTube.

Songs For Soap notes that "Better Than I've Ever Been," by KRS-One, Kanye West and Nas, was nominated for a Grammy despite being written for an advertisement, so an Best Original Song In An Advertisement award might be superfluous. My problem is that the proposed cateogry will ignore the efforts of artists who take one of their popular numbers and adapt them to fit a product.

Why should this be up for a Grammy...

and not this?

Organization Plans To Petition For Grammy Recognition Of Spots; Spec Sheet Introduced [Shoot]
Do We Need Grammy Award Categories for Ad Songs? [Songs For Soap]

Jingle Writing Goes The "American Idol" Route

Maura Johnston — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:30:00 EDT

CBS has decided to pick up the Mark Burnett game show Jingles, during which contestants will be required to write songs showcasing the various sponsors of the program in a positive light, then have those tunes judged by an "expert panel" and Americans. Winning songs will get used in the featured products' commercials, a fact that should make any indie musician hoping to pay his rent by selling his track to a soap company quiver in his boots. The designed-for-evading-TiVoers show will likely appear on the network's schedule come summertime, and casting is apparently going on right now! Here's a suggestion for CBS: How about cueing up a "marginal indie celebrity" version of the show to bring down your network's average viewing age—perhaps Feist vs. Wilco vs. Stephin Merritt? A preview of that potential throwdown is after the jump.

It's "Jingles" all the way for CBS, Burnett [Reuters]

New Game Show To Test Americans' Capacity To Write Catchy Tunes That Will Then Be Shown Endlessly In Ads

mjohnston — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:35:19 EDT

Indie musicians whose livelihoods are semi-dependent on repurposing their songs as ads may want to think about alternate revenue streams—and it's all because of a threatened TV writers' strike. The possible walkout is resulting in a lot of game shows being ordered by networks; one of the shows on CBS' plate for summer '08 is Jingles, where—you guessed it—contestants jockey with one another to see who can write the best songs honoring actual products that will, no doubt, be thrilled to be included on the show:

[Producer Roy] Bank, who heads development for Mark Burnett Prods., said casting will be key, with the producers aiming for diversity within the teams.

"A team could be anything from a sole singer-songwriter to a brother/sister team to a hip-hop group or a barbershop quartet," Bank said. "Their performance onstage will really determine the vote."

The show, he added, will combine "a lot of things that are currently working on television: fun, high-energy performances mixed with competition and a more pointed purpose."

There's a lot more marketingspeak in the rest of the story (including a quote from an excited Sara Lee rep and an indication that some jingles may also be written for people—just in time for Election '08), but in case you're one of those worried musicians out there, take heart: The grand prize is a lump sum of cash and a job at an ad agency! Wait, how is a job a prize again?

CBS rings Burnett's 'Jingles' [Variety]