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From Earworm to Narrative (part 1)
But perhaps more interesting than these examples are examples of advertisements that manipulate the Earworm affect, but add an extra layer; an emotional layer or narrative. The music paints the story of the otherwise silent or relatively silent actors or animations. The model being:
1) The song becomes associated with a particular narrative.
2) The song gets stuck in the mind.
3) The narrative gets stuck in the mind.
4) The product’s association with the narrative gets stuck in the mind.
In my previous examples a popular song is mad to make the audient directly think of a product, but will it make them buy it? Not necessarily. In my following examples the song remains an aid to memory, this time conjuring up the narrative and the product is linked to the narrative and therefore to a situation. The idea being that the audient will now have a desire to buy the product in a particular situation. And they will remember the narrative because of the clever use of diegetic, already popular, music.
I will draw on a couple of examples here so as not to cause confusion. The first are a collection of Tetley Tea adverts.
During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Tetley became masters of popular music manipulation. It all started with their adverts for the (at the time) revolutionary round teabag. Two adverts came out in close succession. One manipulating the lyrics of another Beach Boys hit Get Around and the other appropriating Elvis Prestley’s Hound Dog. Tongue in cheek lyrical abominations abound in both. From ‘you’ll want nothing but a round bag’ to ‘cups are round, cakes are round, saucers are round, the sugar-bowl’s round and the teapot is round…Tetley’s are round.’ Both adverts use music as outlined in my Fruitella and Babybel examples. However, a later coupling of Tetley adverts reveals a subtle shift.
In 1993 Tetley successfully used the 1977 hit single Lovely Day by Bill Withers in a slightly different advertising campaign. It is firstly important to note that in 1992 the track had gained a new wave of popularity due to a cover version which was used in the Box Office Smash ‘The Bodyguard.’ So while an old favourite it was certainly a tune in the popular eye (or rather, ear). Instead of the Tetley Folk spoofing the song, changing the lyrics in order to ‘tea-theme’ it for laughs, the song becomes a diegetic soundtrack to the story of a tired and depressed Sidney (one of the Tetley Folk) as he struggles to get out of bed.
Just as the song hits the line ‘then I look at you’ Sidney looks at Gaffer and Gaffer makes a ‘T’ sign with his hands and we see a cup of Tetley being made. The tea automatically wakes Sidney up, and the advert ends on the line ‘Lovely day, Lovely day, Lovely day’ as Sidney skips over his garden fence and off to work.
The use of the popular song is becoming more subtle and the way it works upon the recipient, more sophisticated.
1) The already popular song gains a fitting narrative element—the advertising company create a powerful snippet of musical theatre. Now the song is associated with Sidney’s morning routine.
2) The song, being popular and catchy gets stuck in the mind.
3) Each time the song is recalled the narrative is recalled.
4) Each time the narrative is recalled the product’s place in the narrative is recalled.
The end result is that the audient automatically links Tetley tea with victory over horrible mornings, and that this link is made as many times as the Earworm song is hummed over in the audient’s inner-ear. Success for Tetley.
