05 Jun

Jingles all the way?

My friend made me watch the video to ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’, a little earlier.
Now I have it stuck in my head.

In fact, I don’t see why I should suffer alone: here you go…

This will be in my head for at least the next two days. It’s an earworm.

What I’d like to know – from others – is; in your opinion, do earworms still work when it comes to advertising?

We’ve had, for example, Sheila’s Wheels and Go Compare … and they were written by a husband and wife creative duo (Chris Wilkins and Sian Vickers) who specialise in writing jingle-based ads.

We’ve also had We Buy Any Car.

These jingles/ads all rely on one thing: simply repeating the company name, over and over again, in a catchy song, in the hope that it gets stuck in your head.

Personally, I hate jingles. I was trained against using them: they’re outdated, tacky, twee, and show you haven’t really got a creative idea with which to sell the product (other than repeating the brand name to a rubbish tune).
Jingles, to my mind, are stuck in the cheesy, sickening advertising of the 60s. They’re childish.

Yet they kinda work…

I’m conflicted.

What are your thoughts? Do horrendous earworms, A.K.A jingles, still work when it comes to marketing a product?

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