The Finger-Popping Pimp Hand of Adam Smith
Music is powerful. It helps us learn things (think of the Alphabet Song or anything from Schoolhouse Rock). It recalls memories of events past, both specific and vague. For me, I see myself walking past WIMPE (the former nickname for Campus Recreation Center - East at the University of Illinois) on my way back to Allen Hall whenever I listen to Hearing Aid by They Might Be Giants. Music can lift our spirits or drive us deeper into despair. Because music has such an impact, I argue advertisers use music, popular music especially, to subconsciously feed our society's runaway consumerism.
Once upon a time, advertisers used to commission songwriters to produce songs specific for the product they wanted to sell. The jingles for Alka-Seltzer® and Tootsie Rolls® come immediately to mind for me, but there were thousands of jingles for the thousands of products advertised on television and radio. In the last fifteen years, most advertisers stopped writing jingles, choosing instead to cull form the vast music library of popular music to find songs that made the best fit for the message they wished to convey. For example, I am a big fan of The Smiths. One of my favorite songs by them, How Soon Is Now?, recalled portions of my sophomore year of Illinois. Now when I hear the song, I think of those times but they are interrupted with images of a cherry red Nissan® Altima performing a slow motion skid on wet pavement ever since Nissan® used How Soon Is Now? in a TV advert in the late 1990s.
Over the last decade or so, increasingly popular songs appear in television advertisements. Banana Republic® used Nina Simone's Feelin' Good to sell their clothing in the late 1990s. The Gap® superimposed AC/DC's Back in Black over Audrey Hepburn's spontaneous dance routine in "Funny Face" to shill their Skinny Black Pant. Heineken® used Green Onions by Booker T & the MGs in a commercial showing how three men: The Rookie, The Pro, and the Master, hid their precious stash of beer with varying degrees of success ("The Master" hid his bottles of beer inside of a cooked turkey). These songs, since they are older, would appeal to an older demographic. Advertisers though are getting cleverer in their use of popular music in their television advertising.
More recently, newer artists have their music featured in television commercials. For example, Natasha Bedingfield's song Unwritten is featured in a Pantene® shampoo commercial in 2007, Paolo Nutini plays his song New Shoes in an advert selling Puma® athletic shoes. I suspect using current artist's songs in television commercials plays into many retail establishments’ use of popular music over their PA systems rather than instrumental muzak from years past. If advertisers use popular music to sell products, you will be more likely to associate those products when you hear the songs from their commercials played over the store's or mall's PA system.
I can't fault advertisers and the corporations who hire them using this technique to sell their products. However, I do miss the days when I could hear a song on the PA system without thinking about shampoo or shoes I never intend on buying.
Once upon a time, advertisers used to commission songwriters to produce songs specific for the product they wanted to sell. The jingles for Alka-Seltzer® and Tootsie Rolls® come immediately to mind for me, but there were thousands of jingles for the thousands of products advertised on television and radio. In the last fifteen years, most advertisers stopped writing jingles, choosing instead to cull form the vast music library of popular music to find songs that made the best fit for the message they wished to convey. For example, I am a big fan of The Smiths. One of my favorite songs by them, How Soon Is Now?, recalled portions of my sophomore year of Illinois. Now when I hear the song, I think of those times but they are interrupted with images of a cherry red Nissan® Altima performing a slow motion skid on wet pavement ever since Nissan® used How Soon Is Now? in a TV advert in the late 1990s.
Over the last decade or so, increasingly popular songs appear in television advertisements. Banana Republic® used Nina Simone's Feelin' Good to sell their clothing in the late 1990s. The Gap® superimposed AC/DC's Back in Black over Audrey Hepburn's spontaneous dance routine in "Funny Face" to shill their Skinny Black Pant. Heineken® used Green Onions by Booker T & the MGs in a commercial showing how three men: The Rookie, The Pro, and the Master, hid their precious stash of beer with varying degrees of success ("The Master" hid his bottles of beer inside of a cooked turkey). These songs, since they are older, would appeal to an older demographic. Advertisers though are getting cleverer in their use of popular music in their television advertising.
More recently, newer artists have their music featured in television commercials. For example, Natasha Bedingfield's song Unwritten is featured in a Pantene® shampoo commercial in 2007, Paolo Nutini plays his song New Shoes in an advert selling Puma® athletic shoes. I suspect using current artist's songs in television commercials plays into many retail establishments’ use of popular music over their PA systems rather than instrumental muzak from years past. If advertisers use popular music to sell products, you will be more likely to associate those products when you hear the songs from their commercials played over the store's or mall's PA system.
I can't fault advertisers and the corporations who hire them using this technique to sell their products. However, I do miss the days when I could hear a song on the PA system without thinking about shampoo or shoes I never intend on buying.
Comments
munkey