Thinking About Ads.

RHYS BOWEN: The other day I had to buy salt. How often does one buy ordinary table salt? Every few years? And I found I was going for Morton Salt. As my hand reached for it my brain sang “No salt salts like Morton salt salts.” Obviously an ad that worked well since I remembered it fifty years after it came out. I could recall others too: You deserve a break today. Two all beef patties, special sauce lettuce cheese… Give me a break, break me off some of that Kit Kat bar. And even further back: See the USA in your Chevrolet. And then I tried to think of any contemporary ad that has stayed with me. In the past the ads were for everyday things, things that would be useful, and they had catchy lyrics. 

Now? Now they are either cars: “Put a Lexus under the tree for her”.

 Or they are strange medications with unpronounceable names. Who makes up those names? They are not the pharmaceutical ingredients. They are MADE UP!  Is that a profession I could aspire to as a writer? Or do you have to be Polish since some of them are seriously lacking in vowels. Xzpykmlo can manage your diabetes/arthritis/leg cramps. Who has ever watched TV and jumped up, rushing to phone their doctor and tell him they need Xzpykmlo immediately? So who are those ads aimed for? And if you bother to listen to the fine print at the end: Xzpykmlo for leg cramps. And then in a tiny quick voice: side effects include nausea, heartburn, diarrhea, dizziness, hair loss and death. That last word is only just audible. And if you were listening you think “would I rather have leg cramps, itch skin or death?” So let’s go down memory lane: which ads do you still remember from long ago? Are they all song lyrics? Do songs stay with us longer? 

 HALLIE EPHRON: In random order… and I know I’m dating myself: Use ajax, the foaming cleanser… Pop pop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is… Double your pleasure, double your fun… You’ll wonder where the yellow went… Take Sominex tonight and sleeeeep… I am stuck on band-aids… Brylcream, a little dab’ll do ya... Jingles have gone the way of the dodo. Or perhaps the way of the Geico Gekko. And these days visual trumps verbal. No wonder since most of us mute the ads.

 LUCY BURDETTE: We don’t generally watch as much TV as we have over the past few weeks, and I too was struck by the rush of medical ads for unusual ailments. I guess they must do the research to figure out their audience? The one ad that is permanently stuck in my head is a song/ditty: 800-325-35-35. Do you remember that? I had to look it up to learn that it’s the toll free number for Sheraton! 

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hallie, I was scrubbing the bathroom last week and singing, “Use Ajax, boom, boom, the blue dot cleanser…” I can’t remember where I’ve put my car keys or my son’s phone number, but I’ll probably go to my grave humming a tune from an ad campaign that was over by the time I was ten. Songs definitely stay with us longer. Some of the non-singing ones I recall from my youth: “Where’s the beef?” You know it’s a good ad when the tag phrase literally enters the national lexicon. Apple’s 1984 ad, casting us back to the halcyon days when we thought home computers were going to save us from an authoritarian demagogue and his brainwashed minions. The Folgers ads! I still recall the ones where some innocent diner in a fancy restaurant was surprised when their after--dinner coffee was switched to Folgers - and it was even better! And of course, the heartwarming “Peter comes home for Christmas” - no, not the weird one from the aughts when Peter and his sister were a little too close. The original had a much smaller sister. The message was the same, though: the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup. 

 DEBORAH CROMBIE: We don't watch much TV these days, either, and when we do it usually has ad-skip enabled. But when I actually see the ads, like Rhys, I am always shocked by all the weird drugs. Who on earth calls their doctors and asks for all these things? But it must be effective or the big pharma companies wouldn't spend all that money on them! Boy, do those jingles date us! The first one that popped in my head was, "Rice-a-roni, the San Francisco treat!" Ding ding! How about Campbell's Soup? "Mmm, good!" Alkaseltzer, Folger's, and Maxwell House--Good to the Last Drop! And how could we ever forget, "Double your pleasure, double your fun!" I hate to think that jingles have gone the way of the dodo. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I always worry when I tell audiences that book promotion is “like that Prell commercial.” In fact, I am so worried that they’ll have no idea about “she’ll tell two friends, then they’ll tell two friends…” that I just go on and explain itl Remember that? I hope? Then “I’d like to teach the world to sing”--remember how innovative and almost inspirational that was? “I’m a pepper, she’s a pepper, he’s a pepper, too.” Do I remember correctly that James Patterson wrote that? How about: Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A. And if I never hear the deliberately annoying 1-877 Kars-for-kids again, I would be so happy. And what was the jingle for the perfume--oh, Heaven Sent. “A little bit naughty but heavenly…Hea….ven SEEENNNNTTT! ” And wasn't there one for Charlie, too? Kinda young, kinda now, Charlie! Kinda free, kinda wow, Charlie! Stop me. Now I’ll be singing all day. 

 JENN McKINLAY: So many ad jingles are from my childhood. I can’t really think of any recent ones that have stuck with me. Food was always the big one for me. “My bologna has a first name...it’s O-S-C-A-R…” or “JELL-O” or “Give me a break of that Kit Kat bar.” And then there’s random ones like “I’m a big kid now” for Huggies, “State Farm is there” for insurance, or “I’m stuck on Band-Aid” which I sing every time I have a boo-boo. I suspect advertisers these days are just looking to have the most shareable meme worthy content, hoping to go viral. (sigh) It makes me miss the jingles.

RHYS: So which jingles do you remember? I suppose the early ads were written initially for radio where sound mattered. Now we are visual, fast moving, flashing colors and.... ethnically diverse!

But have you ever rushed out to buy something because of an ad you saw recently? Me neither!