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Jingle

arts Maturity 11-13 Next article →

A jingle is a short song or musical tune used for commercial purposes. It serves as a form of sound branding. This means the music helps a person recognize a specific brand or service. Most jingles contain one or more hooks. A hook is a catchy part of a melody that stays in a listener's mind. They also include meanings that promote a product. This is often done through advertising slogans, which are short, memorable phrases.

There are several ways a jingle is created and used. Some companies hire specialist producers to write the music and the lyrics. These professionals may also handle the performance and the recording in a studio. In other cases, a company might use its own in-house production staff. For radio stations, the process is very specific. Stations often sub-contract to producers to create musical versions of the station's name and frequency. These musical elements are called "donuts." A donut is a musical piece provided in various time lengths. Local radio producers then edit these donuts to play between songs or during commercial breaks.

Jingles can take many different forms depending on their goal. Some are used for parody, which is a humorous imitation of a style. Others are used as "station idents." These are audio pieces used by television stations to strengthen their brand identity. Examples include the melodic motifs of the BBC One "Circle" idents. Some jingles are even made by taking snippets of popular songs. In these cases, the original lyrics are modified to advertise a specific product or service. This allows the brand to use a familiar melody to reach its audience.

The history of the jingle began with the rise of radio. The first radio commercial jingle aired in December 1926. It was an advertisement for Wheaties cereal. At that time, General Mills was considering ending production of Wheaties due to poor sales. However, the song "Have you tried Wheaties?" changed everything in Minnesota. Out of 53,000 cases of cereal sold, 40,000 were sold in the Twin Cities market. This spike in sales proved that the jingle worked. General Mills then purchased nationwide commercial time, which established the brand across the country.

During the 1950s, the art of the jingle reached its peak. Many small businesses used mail-in contests to find new tunes. People could submit their own ideas to win prizes. These prizes were often items the company had easy access to, such as a car or a three-year supply of Ivory soap. These contests became a way for some American housewives to earn money. One notable woman, Evelyn Ryan, was a "virtuosic contester." She won hundreds of these contests. She used the winnings to act as the primary breadwinner for her family of twelve.

Some jingles are famous for how long they have lasted. The Aeroplane Jelly jingle in Australia was composed before 1943. It was so frequent that it played over 100 times a day on some stations. Another famous example is the State Farm Insurance jingle, "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There." This was composed by Barry Manilow and has been used since 1971. In the Philippines, the ABS-CBN network has used a six-note jingle since 1967.

While jingles were once everywhere, their popularity has changed over time. In 1998, a sample of 1,279 national commercials included 153 jingles. By 2011, that number had dropped significantly. In a sample of 306 commercials, only eight jingles were found. Today, advertisers often replace traditional jingles with a mixture of older and recent pop music. This shift marks a change in how companies try to make their commercials memorable to the public.

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