Jingle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Jingle (disambiguation).

A jingle is a memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly broadcast on radio and sometimes on television commercials. An effective jingle is constructed to stay in one's memory (colloquially, "ringing a bell"). People often nostalgically remember a jingle decades later, even after the advertised brand has ceased to exist. Nowadays the most common form of a jingle is a radio station's on air musical or spoken station identity.

The first known jingle was produced for Wheaties in 1926.^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

The jingle was used on radio from the beginning, and the art of jingle-writing was well-honed by the time television became widely available. The golden age of the advertising jingle was during the US 1950s economic boom. The jingle was used in the advertising of branded products such as breakfast cereals, candy and snacks (including soda pop) and other processed foods, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, as well as various franchises and products that might reflect personal image such as automobiles, personal hygiene products (including deodorants, mouthwash, and toothpaste) and household cleaning products, especially detergent.

Today, with the ever-increasing cost of licensing preexisting music, a growing number of businesses are rediscovering the custom jingle as a more affordable option for their advertising needs.