Ad Hits and Brand Fits

Prior to the internet, digital downloading, and social networking, the most effective forms of advertising were limited to a few TV channels (Only 4 channels in the UK prior to 1990 and little more in the US). TV, cinema, radio, magazines/newspapers, and billboards are all perfect mediums for the communication of the brand slogan and one of the best ways to deliver a brand slogan is to sing it as a jingle. ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ ‘P P Pick Up A Penguin’, ‘Gillette: The Best a Man Can Get', are all sung in the style of a jingle which helps fix them in our brains for longer and I bet as some of you are reading these slogans, you are also singing them (oh, the earworms help!). Rhyme and song are the most popular grammatical structure of the advertising slogan and I’m sure you can remember jingles from when you were a child. This is one of the reasons digital advertisings employs the slogan less frequently, as you can’t hear a digital ad.

Which came first, the song or the ad?  Songs can be, and are, sometimes written for adverts and then because of their popularity in the advert, they might be recorded as full songs.  Advertising agencies might also use existing songs which suit the identity of a brand and exploit the popularity of the song or band e.g. their band identity is our brand identity, and our brand identity is your identity.  

The first full songs I can remember being used in advertising are good examples of both methods. Firstly, the iconic 1971 Coca Cola Hilltop advertisement ‘I’d like to Buy the World A Coke’, written by British songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, (who also wrote the Gene Pitney and Marc Almond hit ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart’). The song went on to be a hit for The New Seekers later in the same year. The second was the 1970 advert for Nimble bread, which used the song ‘I Can’t let Maggie Go’ (or 'She Flies Like a Bird') by British pop group The Honeybus.

However, these were not the first adverts to use existing songs in their advertising. As far back as 1908, the Oldsmobile car company used the song ‘In My Merry Oldsmobile’ (written in the same year by Johnny Marks) which had already gained popularity. The golden age of traditional non-digital TV spanned the complete latter half of the 20th century, and it was during this time that the use of songs on TV ads thrived. One of The Carpenters’ biggest hits came from a song that had been written for the Crocker Bank in 1969. ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ was written by Paul Williams (who also sung the version for the ad) and Roger Nichols. Richard Carpenter asked them if they had written a full version, and could The Carpenters record it?  The rest is history.

When I began writing this article, I wracked my brains for ads with great songs and so many of them were for jeans companies (I’m not sure why this is and am happy to hear any theories). The earliest music on a jeans ad I can remember is ‘Jeans On’ by David Dundas for Brutus Jeans. He later changed the word ‘Brutus’ to ‘blue’ in order to release the song commercially. The song was also used for a Wrangler Jeans ad last year. My other fave from 1978 was ‘Don’t be a Dummy’ for Lee Cooper jeans, as it appealed to my teen punk aesthetic. The original vocal for the ad was by Gary Numan, but the full song was recorded by John Du Cann (guitarist for Atomic Rooster) and made it to 33 in the UK charts in 1979.

However, it was the 1985 advert for Levi 501s by ad agency Bartle Bogle and Hegarty that defined the 1980s and changed men’s underwear forever. The advertisement was set in the 1950s and saw model (and later, pop star) Nick Kamen walk into a launderette, strip down to his boxers, and put his jeans and T-shirt into a washing machine before sitting back down. BBH were hoping that he would be allowed to wear Y-fronts, but the censors said otherwise, so boxer shorts it was and so began the fashion change of men’s underwear. The song used in the ad was ‘Heard it Through the Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye, which was released in 1966 so didn’t quite match the setting. I’m sure most people take no notice of this incongruous use of music, but it never sits well with me and even spoils my enjoyment a little of Steven Knight’s ‘Peaky Blinders’ and ‘SAS Rogue Heroes’. I’m aware these are non-diegetic soundtracks but still, Nick Cave in 1920s Birmingham?  

The 80s 501 ad was not the first time Levi’s had explored this idea and in 1977 Ridley Scott directed a rather postmodern advert that mixed 1950s and 70s fashion and used ‘The Leader of the Pack’ by The Shangri-Las as the soundtrack. My wife seems to remember this ad more than me and says they used to act it out at school.

Levi’s went on to make several great ads using already recorded songs in attempts to tap into the idea of ‘cool’ and all of the songs they used did very well in sales after their use. These included, ‘20th Century Boy’ by T-Rex, ‘The Joker’ by The Steve Miller Band, ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’ by The Clash, ‘Stand by Me’ by Ben E King and ‘Mannish Boy’ by Muddy Waters. You can even find a playlist of Levi’s music on Spotify. 

Other iconic uses of music in TV and cinema ads include the fantastic Cadbury’s Dairy Milk drumming Gorilla ad that used the 1981 hit ‘In the Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins, the 2002 Nike ad that used a JXL remix of Elvis’ ‘A little Less Conversation’, and the 2008 iPod ad that used ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ by Jet.

Although the big surprise John Lewis Christmas adverts lost some of their magic, they still did very well in reigniting the sales of the songs that were used in them. They always preferred to use cover versions and if you have read any of my earlier articles, you’ll know I love a good cover version. The most memorable of these were probably ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ in 2009, ‘Your Song’, ‘Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’, ‘The Power of Love’, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ ‘Half The World Away’ and ‘Together in Electric Dreams’.

As traditional advertising fades aways due to ad skipping, ad blocking and data mining, so will the need for the use of music in ads. I know life must move on, but it was/is always a very good source for hearing songs I haven’t heard before and discovering new and old bands that have passed me by. One thing I do know is that my demographic still watches TV and goes to the cinema in a more traditional way, and we still buy stuff, so we still need to be advertised to. So, I think there are a few more years of great songs in ads still to come.