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Mediaweek reports that CBS is in talks with the creator of Survivor and The Apprentice about a show featuring a jingle production contest.

From reality guru Mark Burnett, and aptly titled Jingles, the eight-episode order will pit teams of contestants against each other in weekly battles to determine who can come up with the most effective commercial ditty.

Man, oh man, I’m getting all geeked out on this.

We may knock ‘em from time to time, but jingles are still in use in advertising everyday. Most of our custom music production work is of the underscore (or instrumental) variety, and the vast majority of our vocal productions are actual songs. But it would certainly be a blast, and I know we have a team of people who could actually provide some comedic elements to the show.

(eh, that’s you Matt and Judson)

We were stoked by the idea of teams competing on the show, since that’s what Burst is all about, and were a bit let down when the early talk of individual winners was the focus, but Burnett’s comments at Variety.com give us some hope that as a team we would still be considered :

“This show is sort of like America’s Got Talent but with a purpose,” said Burnett, adding that the competing teams will potentially benefit from royalties even if they are voted off early in the show.

Of course, if they’re looking for that Classic Sing Song Jingle thing, may we humbly nominate Terry Sweet as our Milwaukee representative. The dude has been at it longer than anyone we know in town, and he kills it everytime.

So, I say we enter. Let’s do it. I’m just left wondering who could be our Richard Hatch or Omarosa. Ideas, anyone? [dh]

UPDATE : um, okay, this does not bode well for us joining in (more from the Variety.com article) :

“A team could be anything from a sole singer-songwriter to a brother/sister team to a hip-hop group or a barbershop quartet,” Bank said. “Their performance onstage will really determine the vote.”

Performance onstage? Uh, yeah.

Dove’s new advertisement “Onslaught” launches today… it’s a fantastic bit of advertising with a message I can’t wait to show my daughter. Dove’s agency, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, was showered with well deserved kudos for their previous spot, “Evolution”, and this advert is a worthy followup.

Featuring music from the (now-defunct) band Simian, the energy and attitude of the track provide a tasty counterpoint to the Dove brand as a whole and steers the non-conformist message (much like the atmoshperic and classically influenced drum n bass of the “Evolution” spot).

The song La Breeze, with the lyrics “here comes the breeze that’ll blow you away,” has also been featured in a Peugeot commercial. The musical geneology of Simian can be followed through to their current incarnation, Simian Mobile Disco, formed in the wake of the original band’s breakup.

Grab a copy at Amazon, or listen to the full song featured in the ad here :

I wish all advertising were this well conceived, executed, and backed by such inspirational musical choices. I think Ron Knoth gets it right in his post at Retail Design Diva :

The Dove advertising is unique among controversially based ads, as it actually sells product, enhances the corporate identity and helps to contribute the cultural debate about self-images. Kudos for Dove for knowing who their customers are; for not being afraid to take a stand; for having confidence in their product and the American public. Dove is authentic, honest and relevant. Doves’ advertising is so cleverly covert, in as much as it makes you feel like you’re doing something good for the world by washing your face.

A great job, and cheers to Ogilvy & Mather! [dh]

The Top Ten Myths About the Advertising Industry, Part I

10. The Best Idea Sells – Whoo, boy, is that a farce! I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I watched bona fide Dreighton Ingenuity™ die on the vine! Back when YourLogoHere! was pitching for the Areola’s Cantina account (they were a local TexMex joint that were closed down due some Cucarachas) it was between my line “Everybody Say Olé For Areola’s!” and some fresh-off-the-turnip-truck junior copywriter’s “¡Hola Areola!” I watched in horror as they went with that stupid “Hola” line. If they knew it was written by some little strumpet trying to ride on her foo-foo ivy league education, maybe they’d think it through a little more and have gone with the professional’s opinion. But hey, what do I know, right?

09. The Pay Is Great - Maybe for some of those stuffed shirt executives who struck gold with some clever pitch back in the late 80’s (who are yet to see lightning strike a second time.) But for the rest of us, it’s not that great. Before the divorce I was just barely struggling to make the payments on a little 2 bed/1 ba in Des Plaines, what with the kids needing braces and all that high-falootin’ Old Navy clothing that Mom just had to have for them! (I kept trying to tell her that Kohl’s was just fine, but would she listen? Ask my divorce attorney! Wait, don’t ask him – I still owe him three grand!) The point is, you can work your fingers to the bone and maybe get a little $2,000 raise once in a while, even though they promoted that “¡Hola, Areola!” blondie to Associate Creative Director.

08. We “Party All The Time” – Now, I’m not saying we didn’t “boogie down” once in a while at YourLogoHere! – there were a couple of Margarita Fridays where we got into the hard stuff! But the rest of the time it’s like any other job out there. You’re in the door at 8:55 and working away until long after the work whistle blows a lot of the time. Those real estate circulars do not write themselves, folks! Sure, we may be able to wear jeans on Fridays if there aren’t clients coming in and I know more than a few “Senior” type people who’ll wear running shoes or sandals, but if you’re picturing a place with people in shorts and t-shirts throwing pencils at the ceiling tiles, you couldn’t be more wrong. Of course, my entire “inside the game” career was at YourLogoHere!, maybe other agencies are different.

07. Anything Goes! – I know what you’re thinking. You’ve seen some of the crazy ads on TV or heard something on the radio and probably believe that any old crazy idea can sell. And maybe on some of those big money TV campaigns, they do. But advertising isn’t just the glitz and the glamour of doing ads for Burger King and MasterCard! The day-to-day stuff has you “workin’ for the man” and that man is telling you that when Carl’s Pool Emporium wants you to change “Save Big” to “Super Huge Big Savings!” – that you’re going to fire up the old word processor program and do just that. Just because the guys from Toyota can do a whole TV ad that rips off my favorite A-Ha video, doesn’t mean the client projects us mortals get to work on can do the same.

06. “You’re Only As Good As Your Last Campaign.” – Well if that were true I wouldn’t have made it for the last three years at my old gig. Prior to my mutual decision with YLH! management to move onto new horizons, I had hit a bit of a dry spell. It happens to the best of us, even Dreighton Pickner! For those three years the pressures at home were mounting and I couldn’t sell water to a fish. Worse yet, I was even starting to believe the things my ex-wife was telling me about “not being cut out for that line of work” and “being a completely unoriginal, creatively void automaton who’d best serve the professional corridor in the food services division.” But I kept my head up and if you choose this line of work, so too should you. You want your kids to be proud of you don’t you? That next great spark of inspiration could be right around the corner!

Keep it locked here for next month’s installment when I reveal the final five! And a big thanks to Daniel Holter at Burst Labs for hosting this little blogworld of mine. See, networking DOES work! Did you get my resumé, Dan-O? [dp]

Absolutely perfect bit of music used in marketing (and we’re not even swayed by the fact that the production company, Glass And A Half Full, clearly loves the music of the eighties as much as we do) :

Check out the ridiculously great Cadbury Gorilla here.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, AdFreak! [dh]

Much has been made within the hipster blog set regarding the co-opting of the younger generation’s music to shill corporate products. From Jeff Tweedy’s decision to license 6 songs from Wilco’s new album “Sky Blue Sky” for Volkswagen advertisements to Outback Steakhouse’s retooling of the song “Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games)” by Of Montreal, agencies seem to have simultaneously grasped that 20-somethings listen to music AND buy stuff.

While the players are new, the game remains the same.

In the mid-60’s, Coca-Cola was having trouble reaching out to the kids. They had a brand-spanking new jingle, courtesy of McCann-Erickson and The Limeliters, and they had a new commercial featuring clean-cut youths eating sandwiches and hanging clocks while enjoying ice-cold Coca-Cola.

For some reason, however, the message just wasn’t sticking. Then, an epiphany. Enlist the hitmakers of the day to re-imagine their hit songs as Coca-Cola commercials and cash in on the result. Latter-day luminaries such as Tom Jones, Neil Diamond, and The Bee-Gees jumped at the chance to be united in song with the nation’s leading soft-drink manufacturer. And the rest is history.

The Bee-Gees Coca-Cola Jingle
The Box Tops Coca-Cola Jingle
Nancy Sinatra’s Coca-Cola Jingle
Neil Diamond’s Coca-Cola Jingle
Petula Clark’s Coca-Cola Jingle
Roy Orbison’s Coca-Cola Jingle
Tom Jones’ Coca-Cola Jingle

In retrospect, I think these jingles present a pretty accurate tableau of mid-60’s pop music. The remakes don’t really alter my opinion of the originals. I don’t love The Box Tops’ “The Letter” any less, and frankly, Tom Jones’ jingle kinda makes me love “It’s Not Unusual” even more.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. [ms]

UPDATE : nice ‘documentary’ on a current Coke advertising approach at Leo Burnett Toronto’s blog. [dh]

St. Louis agency Moosylvania (home to a longtime friend-of-Burst, Judson F. Snell) has been described as “the Manson family of integrated marketing.”

What we know is this… they’re a renegade agency with a team of church-dwelling phantoms and their new Agency Simulator game Moosylvasion : Attack Of The Suits is online now. Go play!

Check out the bitchin’ retro music of the in-game soundtrack :

Going binary!

Hey faithful readers - welcome back to Channel Surfing, your monthly installment from the blog world of me, Dreighton Pickner – ad guy extraordinaire. It’s been a fun diversion for me to write these little quips and insights about “the game” while I’m setting up my consulting gig from home. Didn’t you hear? It’s the digital age. Armed with my venerable iMac and fax machine, I can stretch out in the spare bedroom and it’s just like the offices back at YourLogoHere!, minus the bureaucracy and chatty receptionist.

And that brings me to this month’s topic: The World Wide Web v2.0. Just five years ago most companies were still trying to get their act together, but nowadays you can’t find a carpet outlet or above ground swimming pool emporium that doesn’t have exclusive online sales and offers! I spent many a meeting at YLH trying to tell clients like Bill Black Dodge and AmeriTrust Loan (sorry about the namedropping) to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee – only to be met with blank indifference. (I sure hope it wasn’t the concept!)

But now, if I were to get a call from either one of those guys I’d have to ask them, “What do you think about the digital age now?” I may wear tacky ties and listen to my Counting Crows a little loud, but I know what I’m talking about. You have to wise up and see what’s going on out there – these trends are not made in cubicles, they’re made out there in the real world.

My son was here for the weekend and I couldn’t help but notice his mother had bought him a brand new laptop “for back to school.” He was showing me how to make an mp3 - ipod mini, anyone?! - when I saw this curious website in the background. (No, it’s not what you’re thinking. He’s got Pickner Pride and that means good judgment, unlike some former Pickners who let their boyfriends buy their way into kid’s lives with expensive trips to Best Buy.) But anyway – he looked at me and practically laughed because I didn’t know what this Myspace thing was.

So later that night after MoneyBags picked him up, I fired up the old cable modem and started doing a little hacking around myself. All I could think after about 20 minutes was “HEL-LO OPPORTUNITY!” Why pay for a website when you can get one on Myspace for FREE? The networking possibilities are endless and there’s thousands of kids on there just waiting to soak up some creative thinking. That Zeke The Cow character from Dunkables Choco-Yogurt Bites could have been on there in a matter of minutes and I’m betting he’d have hundreds of people sending him cybermails within a week!

I’m going to play that one close, it’s too good an opportunity for other ad guys out there to pick up on. But trust old Dreighton when he tells you that the ad game hasn’t seen the last of him yet and he’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve.

Come say “hi!” at my new Myspace page!! [dp]

Moby is offering his catalog of production tracks as a free music library for student film projects and non-profits.

We’d put this in our “Wish We’d Thought Of That” category, but, ahhh, yeah…. we already did. Check the last question at our FAQ.

All of our production music is available, for no fee, if you are a student or a qualifying non-profit… and a few of you have taken us up on our offer. We’re simply hoping to make friends and fans, and, as always, we’re on the lookout for quality productions in which to place our music.

To offer any commentary beyond this announcement could be a tad precarious, as we’re on record for being less-than-interested in producing a Moby-esque track ever again (or Coldplay, for that matter) at the behest of yet another ad agency looking to help their client align themselves directly with 1999.

And the charity angle he’s tying in is certainly noble and worth some sort of karmic credit.

But we’ve been fans of Moby… for his (former?) punk aesthetic, for his commercial success (in both meanings of the word ‘commercial’), and certainly for his outspoken and candid views on politics, the environment, animal rights, and religion (frequently still offered at his blog).

Our frustration with his music stems more from the lack of imagination that some of his fans in the ad world appear to have when looking for music for their latest spot. We realize some of the blame lay with their end client, whose capriciousness and indecisiveness have doomed campaign after campaign, skyrocketing their commercial right to the juicy, safe, mediocre, mid-america middle.

And now we say this… (to further ensure that Mr. Richard Melville Hall will never take our calls - unfortunately - because as we said previously, we’re fans) :

The music he’s offering for free just ain’t all that good. The majority of the songs sound like lifeless demos that couldn’t even find a home on a collection of B-sides.

Oh well… that’s been our opinion of the vast wasteland populated by music library after music library after music library for the past decade, as well.

Welcome to the party, Moby. You’ve successfully distributed a few dozen “songs” in an effort to join the world of free production music. Now the real work begins… getting inspired to write something emotionally engaging… keeping your catalog up to date… dealing with the endless requests for tracks that sound like Moby… er, wait… you’ve got that one covered. [dh]

UPDATE 3/12/08 - Moby speaks on his Gratis project at SXSW. More at LA Times Extended Play.

Welcome again to another edition of “Channel Surfing” – the online weblog for all you ad guys and gals out there in interland!

Last month I talked a little bit about where the ad execs are missing the boat with youth advertising. I enjoyed reading all of the emails and positive feedback you sent! (Maybe you could forward those to some agencies for me?)

This month we’re going to tackle something a little more “nsfw” – and that is… (a drum roll here would be really funny, wouldn’t it?) sex in advertising. Now I know what a lot of people have been saying for a long time: “Sex sells.” But does it? For all those light beer and sports car commercial guys out there, let me just tell you one thing – it doesn’t. I’ve enjoyed many a frosty Coors Light in my day and never once did I find myself surrounded by several bikini-clad supermodels. Nope, just me and the two guys who live in apartment 3 from the next complex over standing over the barbeque, still talking about our fantasy football leagues.

Same thing goes for the car. Last summer I bought a cherry 2002 Miata. It’s not that I was having some sort of mid-life crisis or anything like that, but with the divorce being final and a little bit of change in my pocket thanks to my YourLogoHere! severance package, I thought maybe it’s time to trade that old Suzuki Sidekick in for something with a little more pop. I had told myself it was time to reintroduce the world to Dreighton Pickner, Part Deux! LOL! And this car had “pop” in spades. CD player. Wheel covers. 160 horsepower? Whew!

So imagine how it felt to be cruising down the strip in Skokie, IL where all the happenings go down and have a couple of gals pull up next to me and ask me if my daughter knew I was borrowing her BarbieMobile? What did she even mean by that? Well, she certainly wasn’t coming on to me… at least I don’t think she was. Who knows with those gothics women anyway?

Now, faithful readers – don’t think I bought any Coors Light or Miata because I thought it would make women fall at my feet. I’ve done enough ad jockeying in this life and I think I’m smart enough to know better. But when you put out that message… well, you’re just lying to those poor saps out there who are in a weak and vulnerable state. Life can deal you some pretty bad hands and the last thing any guy needs is to begin rebuilding his confidence just to have it torn up and thrown in his face by some chick with a nose ring on the one year anniversary of his wife leaving him to be with some sports agent.

By the by, if you know anyone who’s looking to get into a sweet little pimped auto, let them know there’s a sweet deal on Joliet.craigslist.org for a miata. Priced to sell, these child support payments are stacking up pretty rough on old Dreighton. [dp]

Steven Van Zandt, known for both his role as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos and as guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, offers his support for licensing young, up and coming, indie bands for commercials on tv.

Two interesting tidbits for me…

One :

… a big star is going to overwhelm your brand. I remember Beyonce doing a commercial, but who cares what the product was? Two, it’s cheaper. For the tens of millions spent on Beyonce, you get 30-60 new bands. Band, master, song, all in.

Do we really need to point out the obvious here?

SILVIO WANTS YOU TO LICENSE OUR ARTISTS MUSIC. BANDANNAS AND/OR HAIRPIECES SHALL FLAIL IF YOU IGNORE HIS ADVICE.

Okay, maybe not in quite such specific terms, but seriously… there are major advantages to working with artists who aren’t already big time stars.

Help the little guys out, will ya? We tell you about ‘em because we’re fans, not because we get a piece of their careers for landing them a spot. We’ll help seal the deal, connect the pertinent parties, negotiate some terms, but licensing an indie artist song from Burst Labs really does go a long way toward jumpstarting interest in the band or artist.

And point B :

I don’t know who started it — Allen Moyle’s “Pump Up the Volume” with Christian Slater comes to mind — but it’s good for the movies and good for the music world, which, now more than ever, must rely on the synergy of strangers.

Agreed, and it makes me want to add Wave Of Mutilation by The Pixies (one of the tunes in Pump Up The Volume) to our ongoing list of songs too precious to us to ever accept them as corporate advertising fodder. Add yours to the list and drop us a comment over there.

Tip of the ol’ hat to AdFreak. [dh]