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So, here’s the deal. I, by nature, am a lazy person. Given the choice between driving 50 miles for $200 and sitting in one place for $5, I will gladly chill with Mr. Lincoln.

Combine that with all of the changes and increased workload here at Burst, and you get an “I didn’t get around to this post last month” salad. So, in deference to you, dear readers, I will be making this post 2x better than the last Music Supervisor’s Cheat Sheet (which, I’ll be honest, I wrote on the crapper).

Onward and upward!

Last year, we posted about Mark Burnett’s new idea, a sort of “American Idol” for jingle writers. Well, it turns out that CBS has decided to pick up the series, and casting is happening as we speak, with episodes to begin airing this summer.

May I just say, from an advertising perspective, what a stroke of genius this is?

The fact that the show will be a nationally televised commercial for anyone willing to pony up the dough, with people literally competing over how best to tell the world about how inexplicably wonderful that company is, well, that’s why Mark Burnett is a millionaire and you’re not.

And if anyone can figure out where they’re casting, give us a head’s up. [ms]

(via Reuters)

I want to write music that embodies everything great about this ad.

Clever, well-thought, and perfectly executed. The kind of thing that makes you think “man, I wish I’d thought of that.” F’n brilliant. Kudos to M&C Saatchi. [ms]

video after the jump

Jason Wade (of lite-pop outfit Lifehouse) has scored an Allstate commercial warning of teen-related dangers of the open road.

Thanks to iTunes and a cherry timeslot in the middle of a Friday Night Lights episode, the single cracked the top 40, according to Billboard. Does that seem weird to you? The song itself is effective enough, if a mite saccharine and ambiguous. I guess it’s a good thing that people are buying music at all these days, but talk about a harbinger of change. With cassingles long dead, I can’t imagine something like this happening without iTunes - in fact, it would be impossible without iTunes.

Take a look (below) - am I missing something, or can this just be chalked up to a lot of Nick-tweens watching prime-time NBC while their parents were out trying to score Hannah Montana tickets?

In addition to stubbornly adding to our extensive library of reference music here at Burst HQ (see pic above… we still buy CDs, can you believe it?!), we’ve been quietly adding new production music to our library of available tracks here at Burst Labs.

The Daily Mail has a comprehensive write-up on exactly how the production team pulled off a realistic gorilla playing along to the music and grooving for Cadbury.

The video website, featuring Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight, has been a big success for Cadbury, their ad agency Fallon, and even Collins himself (his 1981 song was re-released and entered the Top 20 again).

Mercedes-Benz has unveiled their new mnemonic, hoping to follow in the gilded footsteps of other companies with ubiquitous sonic identities such as Intel (the Pentium signature was composed by Musikvergnuegen), NBC’s chimes (their classic three-note audio signature actually started as a live bell performance on their radio broadcasts), and the slightly-more-annoying-but-still-effective Zoom Zoom for Mazda.

I’m going to string you along for one more month before releasing the followup to my “10 Biggest Misconceptions About The Advertising Business.”

Okay, truth is I finished it almost a week ago but my trusty blueberry iMac is having some problems turning Floppy Discs into Fubar Discs! I’ve got my guy Juarez down at Kinko’s working on saving that disc though. It’s good to know someone in the technology sector! In the meantime, enjoy this piping hot bit of Dreighton Picknerian wisdom :

I Heard It On The Radio

Love it or hate it, radio is not going anywhere and I still firmly believe the real test of a writer, an agency, whoever… is their ability to transform a car stereo into a theater of the mind.

Sure, TV is “the way” and lots of buzz is afoot about whether or not the whole internet thing is going to catch on, but to this advertising professional I still say “let’s hear it on the air!” Here’s a few pointers for you fellow ad writers out there reading who want to hone your chops that I’ve picked up along the way.

Compelling Hook!

First off, you need a compelling hook. Something that’ll grab you right from the proverbial “get-go.” Think of a big announcement, like “Big News!” or “This Weekend Only!” that will catch the listener’s ear. After all, when you’re sandwiched between a drivetime dj and the latest Third Eye Blind single, you’re going to need something with IMPACT.

Don’t Sell… Yet!

Once you’ve got their attention you’d think it’s time to get right in there with the sell. Don’t fall into that trap, that’s what they’re expecting! You need to “keep them on the leash” as I’ve been known to say. (I picked that one up from my wife’s divorce attorney, HA!) Get ‘em more interested. Think of asking your listener questions that make them really relate from their own life, like “How would it feel to be able to have more money for things like a cruise or a new deck?” Certainly everyone can! So you don’t want to give away the solution just yet.

Message!

Then it’s really time to hit them with the message. The Big Idea. The life-changing, how-did-I-ever-live-without-this-knowledge moment. What you do to really push this over is let the guys in the recording booth work their magic. They have all sorts of tapes and cd’s of really incredible sound effects and music that’ll make your point be heard loud and clear! Also, they can do really incredible things with echoes and special effects on the VO guys – not just the usual “Alvin and The Chipmunks” stuff but really crazy tricks that can make someone sound like they’re in a church or the Grand Canyon! My guy at StarTrax Music has always been like my ‘Fifth Beatle’ when it comes to doing really outside the box radio.

Jingle!

And never underestimate the power of a good jingle. You don’t hear as many these days, which is too bad, because it can really help relax and make your listeners enjoy what you’re telling them. I mean hey, I can tell you that Bill Black Dodge is having a 4th Of July sale, but if I wrap it up in a patriotic anthem written just for the client, well, that translates to one thing, dear readers, and that one thing is SALES.

Name and Number! Again!

One last thing. Keep that name and phone number on the script as much as you can. I know it can sound kind of silly to hear 1-800 BLA BLAH 5 times in a row, but believe you me, this is the time to grind it in.

And on that note, time for Dreighton here to sign off. Donny’s finally taking my advice and joined a youth soccer league. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he finds out Ol’ Dad’s not just some nerdy ad guy with a one-bedroom, but that he can hang with the jocks just like his mom’s new special friend! [dp]

Bill Wyman absolutely nails it with his Moby Quotient - The Art of Selling Out.

Using the criteria Disconnect, Sacredness, Origins, Reputation, Wealth and Time he offers a definitive formula for determining if an artist has, indeed, sold out.

Of course, I still maintain :

It’s easy to say you’ll never sell out when no one’s making any offers.

And we’re on record with an opinion of Moby’s recent offerings.

Full story at the Washington Post. Thanks, Hypebot. [dh]

According to AdWeek, Sony BMG has put together a single-sponsor package for the advertising on their Music Box video portal.

While it’s great to see a major company making an investment in any part of the dying music industry, you have to wonder where their $500k to $1M (according to sources) could have been spent. Instead of actually helping create an experience that people would want to tell others about, they’re resorting to old-school interrupt advertising.

Here’s the general idea :

We here at Honda agree with the focus groups and corporate consensus of the Sony BMG Label Conglomerate on what is NEW and FRESH and are happy to present it to you right after we waste 15 seconds of your life with this commercial we’re going to force you to sit through before you get to the Cool-By-Committee Hot New Band Video Production.

I suppose you can’t blame them for just going with what they know - tack the Honda brand and logo onto what the big(gest) record label tells you is Neat and Nifty and The Next Big Thing - and you can make an argument that it’s a million well spent according to Business As Usual.

I just wish there were more creativity on this project, at both the advertising agency level and at the record label level. Seems like a million dollars is being dropped on the promotional equivalent of throwing a “Brought to you by Honda” sticker on some jewel cases… a Now That’s What I Call Music / This Is Next for the viral video set.

Wait a sec… viral?!

According to Amy Carney, president of advertiser sales, Sony Pictures Television, which is responsible for selling sponsorships in the Music Box service, the player is designed to encourage viral distribution of both the music and the Honda ads. “They are transportable,” she said. “They can be downloaded and pasted onto MySpace home pages” and other social networking sites and blogs, she added.

May I humbly point out (with a nod to my Burst cohort Matt)… advertising something as ‘viral’ does not necessarily make it so. In fact, you could make a pretty strong case that it will be exactly NOT that, due to the nature of a self-perpetuating Virus versus a Corporate Behemoth’s schemes.

Just my $0.02. Drop a comment below and join in. [dh]