It’s Ca-Ca-Catching On….

Pianomomsicle writes to let me know that I’m far from the only one to have gotten a bad case of earworm from the Subway jingle (“Five. Five Dolla. Five Dolla Footlong!”)

Indeed, according to Slate, it’s something of a trend. It’d seem the creative jingle is making a bit of a comeback; in addition to the Subway spot (whose genesis the article explains), there are a few others:

Dunkin’ Donuts hired They Might Be Giants to pen a series of short songs about coffee and smoothies and such.

Until the Subway campaign (“Five. Five Dolla. Five Dolla Footlong!”) came along, Dunkin’s jingle (“Is it French, or is it Italian? It’s FreTalian!” and “Doing things is what I like to do…YES!”) were my commercial earworm du jour.

And then…:

And the current campaign for FreeCreditReport.com makes bold use of infectious musical storytelling. While the Subway jingle is more a demi-jingle, with very little build and no verses, the FreeCreditReport.com songs are full-blown ballads—which of course include carefully enunciated mentions of the brand, in this case literally spelled out.

“F R E E, that spells Free, Credit Report Dot Com, Baybee…”

The songwriter for these spots was David Muhlenfeld of the Martin Agency, who says he “went away with my guitar and some cheap Chianti” to find inspiration. When I asked Muhlenfeld whether he used any particular tricks to make the tunes catchy, he replied: “Repetition alone will make something stick in a listener’s head. The question is, once your song is in their head, will they want to stick that head in an oven?”

My oven won’t hold my head, but fear not; I have no idea how to find a Dunkin’ Donuts (I’m more a bagel guy anyway), wouldn’t patronize Free Credit Report.com at gunpoint, and work right by a Jimmy John’s.

But dang – I do wind up singing singing those damn jingles…

However – and this one’s going out to all the musicians in the house – I almost laughed a Lattachocca out my nose reading this bit – talking with the writer of the Subway jingle:

“The chord structure does imply something dark,” [songwriter Jimmy Harned of boutique studio Tonefarmer], agreed, getting out his guitar to demonstrate over the phone. “On the word long, it goes down from a C to an A-flat,” he said, strumming, “which is kind of a weird place. It’s definitely not a poppy, happy place. It’s more of a metaly place. But at the same time, the singing stays almost saccharine.”

Back in college, I was asked to write the most irritating possible musical passage on my guitar. I came up with something that crunched between C and A flat – over, and over, and over, and over and over…

(“Five. Five Dolla. Five Dolla Footlong!”)

12 thoughts on “It’s Ca-Ca-Catching On….

  1. I saw They Might Be Giants at First Avenue in the Mainroom in the mid 80’s.

    Their quirky and sometimes funny songs didn’t play well in front of a crowd.

  2. I saw ’em in the Entry back then, too.

    I never really liked their whole schtick, but it was the right room for ’em.

    And “Hi, We’re The Replacements” is just about the funniest song ever.

  3. Well I was shopping for a new car, which one is me? A cool convertible or an SUV… Too bad I didn’t know my credit was whacked, now I’m driving off the lot in a used subcompact! F R E E that spells free, creditreport.com baybee. Saw their ads on my tv, thought i’d check’em out, but was too la-zee. Now instead of lookin fly and rollin phat, my legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse’s gettin’ laughed at. F R E E that spells free, creditreport.com baybee!

    They say a man should always dress…for the job he wants. So why am I dressed up like a pirate in this restaurant? It’s all because some hacker stole my identity, now I’m in here every evening selling chowder and iced tea. Shoulda gone to free…..credit….report.com. (YEEHAW!) I woulda seen this coming at me like an atom bomb. They monitor your credit and send you email alerts, so you don’t end up selling fish to tourists in t-shirts! (strum strum)

    And sadly, those were both reproduced without the benefit of Google or any other lyrics pages

  4. “Any size double-hung white window
    installed for one eighty-nine”

  5. i think the Old Navy performance fleece commercials were the first full-out song commercials. i still remember them.

    “Performance fleece: ooh it’s fine. Performance fleece. i’ll be there at 9! i’m going to go. With you as my guest. In performance fleece i’ll be the best dressed! Old Navy Old Navy Old Navy performance fleece. Old Navy, Old Navy performance fleece!”

    Haha, you just got that out of your head a year ago and now it’s back!

  6. Bill C,

    I raise you…:

    “Well, I married my dream girl, I married my dream girl, too bad I didn’t know that her credit was bad. So instead of a house in a pleasant suburb, I’m living in the basement at her mom and dad’s. No, we can’t get a loan, for a respectable home, because she missed some payments on an old credit card. If I’d gone to freecreditreport.com, I’d be a happy bachelor with a dog and a yard”

    …y’know, back when they were cool, before they sold out.

  7. before they went electric.

    So some hacker stole his iden-i-ty, so now he has to dress like a pirate and work nights? I never did get that.

  8. i don’t get it either, Buzz. Did he lose his job for having bad credit? Is the person who stole his identity now working in his formerly well-paying, suit-wearing job?

  9. A lot of comapnies will run a credit check before they hire you, to look for any REALLY huge problems.

  10. They don’t run that commercial very often. I know there is a 4th one as well, but I hardly ever see that or the unhappy husband ones. Just the restuarant and new car ones.

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