Dual Purpose Doublemint

I'd recommend watching Chris Brown's music video of Forever before and after reading this article.

Article from the WSJ

Chew on This: Hit Song Is a Gum Jingle
By ETHAN SMITH and JULIE JARGON
July 28, 2008; Page B1

Sharp-eared pop-music fans may have noticed a brief reference to an old chewing-gum jingle buried in "Forever," Chris Brown's top-10 hit. "Double your pleasure/double your fun," the R&B singer croons in the chorus.

What listeners don't know -- and what Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. planned to reveal Tuesday -- is that the song is a commercial.

"Forever" is an extended version of a new Doublemint jingle written by Mr. Brown and scheduled to begin airing next month in 30-second spots for Wrigley's green-packaged chewing gum.

R&B singer Chris Brown's 'Forever,' which hit No. 4 on the Hot 100, is also a gum jingle.
Mr. Brown is one of a trio of pop stars enlisted by ad agency Translation Advertising, a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos., to update the images of three of Wrigley's best-known brands.

The campaign includes spots featuring R&B singer Ne-Yo doing his own take on Big Red's "kiss a little longer" jingle. And "Dancing With the Stars" regular-turned-country-singer Julianne Hough recorded a twangy version of Juicy Fruit's "The taste is gonna move ya."

But Mr. Brown's "Forever" is the most ambitious part of the campaign. Mr. Brown was commissioned to write and sing both the pop song and a new version of the Doublemint jingle, introduced in 1960.

First, Mr. Brown updated the jingle and recorded it with hip-hop producer Polow Da Don. Then, during the same Los Angeles recording sessions in February, paid for by Wrigley, Mr. Brown added new lyrics and made a 4½-minute rendition of the tune, titled "Forever."

In April, Mr. Brown's record label, Jive, released the song to radio stations and digital download services as a single. After the song became a hit, Jive added it to his 2007 album, "Exclusive," and re-released the album in June. "Forever" reached No. 4 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart last week.

All three new Wrigley jingles are scheduled to be unveiled at a news conference Tuesday in New York, with each of them to be performed by the artist involved. Mr. Brown is slated to sing "Forever" and segue into his jingle. New television commercials and radio spots featuring the jingles and print ads showing new packaging for the gum are set to appear in August.

Some of Wrigley's popular gum brands
The campaign illustrates a deepening of the ties between pop music and advertising. Rappers frequently mention luxury products like liquor or cars in songs, and occasionally serve as paid spokesmen for the brands. And for McDonald's Corp.'s 2003 "I'm Lovin' It" campaign, the burger chain, with the aid of Translation Chief Executive Steve Stoute, enlisted Justin Timberlake to write and record a song using the slogan as its chorus. But the song was never released on one of his albums.

Tom Carrabba, executive vice president and general manager of Sony BMG's Zomba Label Group, which includes Jive, says label executives initially had qualms about releasing and promoting a song recorded at an advertiser's behest "But the song was so potent and strong. That overruled us being maybe a little hesitant," he adds.

Sony BMG is a joint venture between Bertelsmann AG of Germany and Japan's Sony Corp.

Other than the "double your pleasure" line, the lyrics to the song and the TV jingle are different. But the melody and the music behind it are nearly indistinguishable. A 60-second radio ad scheduled to air starting Friday further blurs the line between the song and the commercial. It starts with a section of "Forever," and moves seamlessly into lyrics promoting the gum. "I'ma take you there, so don't be scared," Mr. Brown sings. "Double your pleasure; double your fun. It's the right one, Doublemint gum."

The campaign was conceived and executed by Mr. Stoute, a former senior executive at Interscope Records who counts rapper Jay-Z as a partner in his business. The idea was to connect the hit song and the jingle in listener's minds. That way, Mr. Stoute says, "by the time the new jingle came out, it was already seeded properly within popular culture."

TASTE OF MUSIC

The background on three Wrigley's gum jingles:
• DoubleMint
1960: 'Double your pleasure' jingle first appears; gum introduced 1914
• Big Red
1979: 'Kiss a little longer' jingle first appears; gum introduced 1976
• Juicy Fruit
1983: 'Taste is gonna move ya' jingle first appears; gum introduced 1893
Source: the companyMr. Brown said in an email that he wrote "Forever" and the related jingle in about 30 minutes each. "I actually thought it would take longer to write a jingle they would like," he wrote. "But they said it was a perfect fit after the first try."

Paul Chibe, Wrigley's vice president for North American gum marketing, declines to disclose how much Mr. Brown was paid for his role in the campaign.

Wrigley's push to update its older gum brands started earlier this year, when the company began selling them in new slim, envelope-style packages. Some of the gum was reformulated to improve its flavor and make it last longer. Juicy Fruit -- Wrigley's oldest brand, launched in 1893 -- Doublemint, Big Red, Spearmint, Winterfresh and the newer Extra line, represent around 30% of the company's U.S. gum business.

Wrigley chose Mr. Brown to develop the new Doublemint song, in part because the company's consumer research showed that African-American consumers prefer Doublemint to other gum brands. Mr. Chibe calls the move "the future of the brand."

Mr. Chibe added that the mildly suggestive lyrics have never given the company pause. "Everything he's done with 'Forever' represents the brand and it fits our brand personality for Doublemint," Mr. Chibe added.

While Wrigley has had strong sales in emerging markets, it has lost market share in the U.S., where it faces strong competition from Cadbury PLC, maker of Trident, Stride and Dentyne. Last year, the company's North American sales were flat, at $1.75 billion.

During the company's annual meeting in March, Chairman William Wrigley said he was "far from satisfied" with the company's domestic performance in 2007, though results improved in the first quarter of 2008. In April, Wrigley agreed to be acquired by Mars Inc., the closely held maker of M&Ms and Snickers, for about $23 billion.

My Comments

My initial thought was, "I feel fooled into liking this song! Quick...I need a pack of gum to make me feel better."

Marketing is a serious field and a lot more calculated than most realize. In this case, Wrigley's marketing plan began with the end in mind while it rolled out its plan in phases. First, research its target consumers: "...the company's consumer research showed that African-American consumers prefer Doublemint to other gum brands." Secondly, get a singer that can appeal to this target group. Wrigley did even better than that. They found a pop singer that appeals to an audience beyond African-Americans. Thirdly, win the audience over without the audience even knowing they're being swooned into a commercial.

This new marketing approach has so far worked seamlessly. Even after revealing that the song, Forever, is meant to be a Doublemint commercial, the momentum of the song is powerful enough that radio stations, clubs and bars will continue to play the song. Most DJs probably don't even know it's a commercial. Wrigley is just that good.

I shouldn't be surprised that this is a commercial. Making money is a part of business, especially the entertainment business. Accept it for what it is and understand its story. Commercials have a long history of having catchy tunes that people sing to for years. Wrigley just figured out a way to achieve what other companies have done while getting the consumers to enjoy their advertising. It's a bit subliminal, but that's marketing.

Bodies Revealed

"Fascinating + Real" is a perfect description of the Bodies Revealed exhibit. Disgusted comes to mind too. It's a lot like eating meat. If I don't think about what I'm eating, I'm fine. Once I begin thinking about the history behind the meat, I have a tougher time eating it. I made it a point to continuously remind myself that this is the real deal, making my stomach twist at times.

The excitement of learning anatomy flooded back to me from my high school days of physiology and psychology. That information that had been lying dormant for years in my head was slowly revived as I walked through the exhibit. The best realization was remembering that the topic of anatomy has the best terms out of any field.

Here's a small sample:
Medulla Oblongata
Dura Mater
Longitudinal Fissure
Hippocampus

How fun is that! Those would be my top choices for band names if I were to start one.

Back to the exhibit... For people in the medical field, this exhibit would be a heyday. For athletes, this exhibit would help train them to understand the muscle systems they work so laboriously to develop. I would strongly not recommend taking children to this event. The displays are too intense and at times shocking. For the curious, however, it is worth the $24.

http://www.unionstation.org/bodies/