Commercial Jingle
Located in 2 routes
The television-advertising jingle proper — a purpose-written product song built around a slogan hook and tuned to score a 15-to-60-second spot with an unforgettable payoff line. The style leans on polished pop, rock and country-pop arrangements, tight harmony vocals, and a melody engineered so the tagline sings itself in the viewer's head. Some were bespoke tunes, others repurposed hit songs as brand anthems, but all share the goal of welding a melody to a product. The craft is persuasion through catchiness, and the most effective examples ran for years and became shorthand for the brand.
History
As television advertising exploded from the 1950s, agencies commissioned composers to write product songs that could carry a campaign, and specialist jingle houses flourished in New York and Chicago. Mitch Leigh's "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee," Tom Dawes' "Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz" for Alka-Seltzer and Richard Trentlage's Oscar Mayer bologna song became national earworms, while Leslie Pearl's "The Best Part of Wakin' Up" anchored Folgers for decades. From the 1980s brands increasingly licensed existing hits — Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" fronted Chevy trucks for years — and the pattern culminated when McDonald's turned its jingle into a Justin Timberlake single, "I'm Lovin' It," blurring the line between commercial and pop record.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- I'm Lovin' It(2003) — Justin TimberlakeSpotifyYouTube
- My Bologna Has a First Name (Oscar Mayer)(1973) — Richard TrentlageSpotifyYouTube
- Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz (Alka-Seltzer)(1976) — Tom DawesSpotifyYouTube
- Like a Rock(1986) — Bob SegerSpotifyYouTube
- The Best Part of Wakin' Up (Folgers)(1984) — Leslie PearlSpotifyYouTube
- Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee(1968) — Mitch LeighSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Steve Karmen, Who Killed the Jingle? (Hal Leonard, 2005)
- Timothy D. Taylor, The Sounds of Capitalism (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
- Bernice Kanner, The 100 Best TV Commercials (1999)
- Barry Manilow, Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise (1987)
- advertising-jingle history accounts