Ads aren't what they used to be

I've been making some solid progress on my project to transfer my old tapes to DVD. Of late I've been prioritizing the stand-up shows on some of my oldest tapes, dating from 1990-1991. It's odd that some of the jokes would sound very valid now, or just recently at least, with talk of war in Iraq, economic downturns, and Bush as President.

Occasionally I taped the commercials during these shows. Most often I was watching them as I recorded them and I paused the recording during the commercials. Sometimes I was clearly gone or chose to sleep and the commercials are intact. Almost 20 years later, the commercials are interesting instead of just annoying. I've been letting them record onto the DVDs.

Sometimes it's worth it for fragments of forgotten shows. As these stand-up shows were on FOX, I'm seeing bits of 'True Colors', 'Babes', and 'Drexel's Class' in amongst more familiar shows like 'Married with Children' and 'The Simpsons'.

One question that occurred to me while watching the ads in general was 'What happened to the jingle?'

Even in the 1990s it seems that the concept was dying out. A little tune associated with a product's catchphrase can burn that product into your head, sometimes annoyingly so. Did they become too annoying? Was there a backlash? I'll bet there are people that were children in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s that can still sing jingles from certain products. Apart from the radio, where are they now?

Did advertising agencies get lazy? Was marketing invaded by frustrated movie directors that feel the need to tell a story rather than push a product? It seems that commercials are often too busy trying to be clever nowadays than sell something.

Maybe that works. Maybe I'm the one that's backwards. Maybe I've seen too many commercials where I didn't know what was being advertised until the end of the commercial and then immediately forgot what the product was in the ad.

Lets face it, most people skip commercials when they can. Why make them longer? Make them shorter. Do a 30 second song based on buying one brand of soup over another and move on. Better yet, a 10 second song, to hit someone's brain just before they raise the remote to hit fast-forward. Sneak it in there quickly.

It's obvious music gets people's attentions in a commercial. Look at the trend to promote bands via commercials. What gets over? The band or the brand? Hint: it isn't the brand.

The only place I can think of where this comes together for the brand is for a credit tracking company that has a band in each commercial, doing different songs in different styles. The first one was in a seafood restaurant. You know the one. They tend to be clever, they use music, and it's focused on the brand.

Maybe that doesn't work either. My folks love the songs but would never sign up for the service. Maybe it does work. Somebody must be signing up. They keep making new commercials in the series.