Catalog Evergreens Pup Up As Jingles In increasing Numbers

If it seems, to quote an old pop ballad, that you've heard that song before, of course you have. Whether you revere the songs of the pre-rock era or those with terrific hooks that came afterward, giant corporations are selling their goods and services with the comfortable familiarity that only a song icon of the past can provide.

"Perhaps the single most interesting aspect of using songs in commercials is that it yields comparable benefits to both well-known and lesser-known songs," says Richard Rowe, president of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. "Cultivating hit singles also used to be a much larger market--many singles now are never released commercially. So the question becomes, What can a publisher do today to get its artists' songs in front of the public?" Rowe adds that his company would never "sanction a song's use in a context we thought distasteful or tacky, no matter how much money we were offered."

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Among the Sony/ATV songs being used as jingles are "We Are Family" (cellular phone commercial), "All Together Now" (AT&T), "Tutti Frutti" (various commercials), "Time After Time" (Healthy Choice), and "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" (Office Depot).

"It is extraordinarily cost-effective for an advertiser to marry an already-memorable song with a product," says Maxyne Berman Lang, president of Williamson Music, the publishing company formed in the '40s by Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. "Jingle usages of well-known music result in immediate consumer recognition and retention. There, much less media time is required to establish a campaign." As administrator of the Irving Berlin Music catalog, Williamson is represented in the jingles field with four Berlin songs, including "Steppin' Out" (Baby Gap).

On the issue that old pop warhorses are more economical to employ as commercials than casting new material, Dan Markell, creative manager of film and TV at PolyGram Music Publishing, says, "To the contrary, it is quite a bit more expensive to use 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,' '01' Man River,' or 'Tonight.' The theory is that this extra expense is more than made up for by the positive effects. Any of these existing hit songs has a place in the hearts and minds of the consumers who ostensibly bring that fondness to the experience of viewing-however casually or subconsciously-the commercial."

At Warner/Chappell Music, Jay Morgenstern, executive VP/GM/CEO of sister music print unit Warner Bros. Publications, says, "We see more catalog songs being used even for contemporary products that cater to a younger generation. But the biggest users are for consumer products at the higher end of the cost structure." Two of the publisher's Porter songs, "Don't Fence Me In" (Embassy Suites) and "You Do Something To Me" (Dairy Management Assn.), are among its entries in the jingles field, as is the Gershwins' "Someone To Watch Over Me" (H&R Block). George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" has been a theme at United Airlines for years. Other newly minted commercials at the publisher include "The More I See You" (Estee Lauder) and "I Want to Take You Higher" (AT&T).

Allan Tepper, VP of creative services at Warner/Chappell, says he's even noticing for the first time that advertisers are "starting to want new and developing artists for their commercials. This could help break these acts."

Mary Beth Roberts, VP of catalog development at Famous Music, says that, to a post-35-year-old market, evergreens "elicit strong emotions and associations, in that [these people] experienced those songs as their contemporary music, as well as the baby boomers, who heard their parents' music throughout their youth. These demographics also have the most discretionary income. The standards lend prestige, credibility, desirability and distinction to a consumer product. I have also found that the writers' estates are becoming more open to licensing songs for commercials, providing the commercial doesn't denigrate the copyright."

Among the Famous Music copyrights selling goods and services these days are two James Homer themes from the "Titanic" soundtrack, "Southampton" (Max Factor) and "Leaving Port" (Sprint); Frank Loesser's "Heart And Soul" (Quaker Oats); and Jay Livingston and Ray Evans' "Mona Lisa" (MCI).

While agreeing that there has been a dramatic increase in the use of vintage songs for ads, John L. Melillo, VP of music resources at EMI Music, says the public perception of this is bigger than reality. "To the viewing public, the volume seems larger because compositions that have traditionally been unlicensable are now appearing in ads, and original masters are being used more frequently."

There is also an international impact to ad usage of catalog greats. While it enjoys oldies coverage in the U.S.-including "The Best Is Yet To Come" by Carolyn Leigh and Cy Coleman (Nestle); "Danke Schoen" by Bert Kaempfert, Milt Gabler, and Kurt Schwaback (Amoco); "Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)" by Louis Prima (Chips Ahoy Cookies); "Strangers In The Night" by Eddie Snyder, Charles Singleton, and Kaempfert (Nissan); and "Hurt So Bad" by Bobby Weinstein, Bobby Hart, and Teddy Randazzo (Kraft Light Macaroni & Cheese)-MCA Music is also garnering a number of international ads, including "Strangers In The Night" (OBS Supermarket, Sweden); Gordon Mills and Les Reed's "It's Not Unusual" (Heineken Beer, Netherlands); and Sol Marcus, Eddie Seiter, and Guy Woods' "Till Then" (Ford Galaxy, France and its former possessions).

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Catalog Evergreens Pup Up As Jingles In increasing Numbers

Brandweek, Oct 26, 1998

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