The Secret To Advertising In The 21st Century

The jukebox was the original Spotify playlist. With a fistful of coins, you became the D.J. and czar of tunes.

To this ex-adman, the jukebox also symbolizes a crutch for creative advertising work. Because when there’s a drought of ideas, a famine of inspiration, advertising turns to hit songs and celebrities.

Why?

Because it’s easier to borrow fame and associate it with your brand than it is trying to build your own brand identity. Success by association.

When you hear a deluge of classic rock and pop songs in commercials, that’s a canary in the coalmine of creativity.

Sadly, in 2019, I don’t think I’ve ever heard so damn many hit songs used in commercials. It’s ridiculous. Ludicrous. Pathetic, even.

Commercials today use classic songs even if the songs have nothing to do with the faint aura of the alleged concept.

Wait, concept–– an advertising concept? What the hell’s that?

Sorry. Concepts these days are as rare as Jimmy Hoffa wearing spats riding a unicorn. (Finally, I’m able to use ‘spats’ in a sentence–– victory.)

But it doesn’t seem to matter. Slap a classic rock track on your limp idea and hope for the best. It’s a time-honored technique for varnishing a turd–– a way of spritzing perfume to mask a silent-but-deadly fart.

In the 80s, there were classics like the Red Baron Pizza campaign. The lyrics of Percy Sledge’s immortal “When A Man Loves A Woman” rewritten into “When A Man Loves A Pizza.”

Clever, right?

But today, it’s not so much about rewriting lyrics–– that would require some creative work. Why bother?

Just buy the rights to the song and slap it on your commercial. Bada bing, bada boom–– creative gold!

As you watch commercials over the next few days, please note how many are using classic rock and pop songs as an adhesive to get people to remember the spot. And the brand.

Does it work?

Yes, according to a study funded by Nielsen Music. It claims spots using popular tracks increase viewers’ attention, emotion, and memory by 20% and deliver a significant rise in effectiveness over multiple viewings.

Like using a celebrity as spokesman, the fame of the track gives the brand a halo of acceptability. And apparently, that traction improves with repeated viewing because people are less likely to burn-out on the spot.

I’m not sure I buy it.

The study used “forced exposure”–– meaning, I suppose, subjects were rigged up like Alex in A Clockwork Orange to view the commercials.

Okay, maybe not that restrictive, but certainly it was an artificial testing environment.

When I hear a popular song, I think about a moment in my life when it was playing. The song is anchored to my memory, not the brand. Yet.

Led Zeppelin’s song “Rock and Roll” reminds me of a college party I attended. There was a vat of grain alcohol-spiked punch, and fights broke out (who’d have thunk?) as that classic Zeppelin track was blasting on the stereo.

But now, after years of seeing Cadillac commercials hundreds of times with “Rock and Roll” as their soundtrack, I also associate the song to the car.

That association means nothing to me. I certainly don’t think of Cadillac as the brand representing shredding Jimmy Page licks, Robert Plant wailing, and bad boy rockin’ ‘tude.

I believe classic songs are personal to your life, not the brands that hijacked them. But, if you throw enough money at it, maybe you can make some of that fame stick to your brand.

Or, if the song enhances a strong advertising concept. (Of course, it also helps when you’re the first to break an iconic band’s work for commercial use.)

This trend of using popular songs in advertising is certainly good for old rockers who considered themselves artists. In their prime, these creative people considered making their music available for commercial use as “selling out.”

Today, selling out is called making a living. It works well for recording artists.

And advertising creatives.

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Patrick Scullin (aka PD Scullin) was a founder of ASO Advertising and recently left the ad game to write what he wants, wrangling parts of speech to entertain and amuse.

He has an upcoming novel, SAWDUST, and writes two blogs: The Lint Screen (satire, smartassery humor, pop culture ramblings, and advice for people getting hip replacements) and Empathetic Adman (marketing pontification).