Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of
July 3, 2011
Weekly issue #637
Subject:
DOUG THOMPSON'S
CELEBRITY COMMERCIAL MONTAGE
Station: N/A
Dates: Various
Time: 22:05
"The Monkees - brought to you by Kellogg's!"
Celebrities have sung (and spoken) the praises of advertisers for decades. Frank Sinatra once crooned the virtues of Halo Shampoo. Broadway/TV/movie star Robert Goulet (who grew up in Canada), lent his voice to DuMaurier Cigarettes here in the Great White North in the early 1960’s. Ronald Reagan was the long-time spokesperson for General Electric. Comedian Jack Benny seamlessly wove Lucky Strike Cigarettes commercials into his weekly radio show in the 1950’s. Coke spent a fortune during the '60’s getting many top music stars of the day to recreate their hits into 30-, 60- and 90-second jingles while weaving in the “Things Go Better With Coke” message.
Of course, it went the other way as well. The 60-second Coke commercial, “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” became a Top Ten hit record on its own. Bob Crewe turned the “Music To Watch Girls By” Diet Pepsi commercial into a Top Twenty hit…as did The T-Bones with “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)”, the theme from an Alka-Seltzer ad (actually that one made it all the way to #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart).
This montage, all 22:05 of it, is all celebrities…all the time. Most are singing. A few are talking.
The highlights include a young Cass Elliott (long before The Mamas & The Papas when she was in a folk trio called The Big Three) singing and announcing for Thom McCann Shoes. There are car commercials from Louis Armstrong, The Fifth Dimension, Brenda Lee, Andy Williams and Pat Boone.
Soft drinks have jingles from Bo Diddley, The Guess Who, Michael Jackson, Peggy Lee, Ike & Tina Turner, Ronnie Hawkins & Rough Trade. Even The Monkees got into the ad game with a short jingle for Kellogg’s (a regular sponsor of their weekly 60’s TV series).
We went back to 1959 for the Marty Robbins ad for Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco. And before he made it big on the record charts and Las Vegas, Barry Manilow made his living singing jingles (for many years, he even included a jingle medley in his live shows). Barry sings for Tab in this montage.
Tommy Lee Jones lends his distinctive Texas accent to Red Dog Beer and Monty Python’s John Cleese is his usual hilarious self singing? for Diet Pepsi.
We conclude with two jingles for radio itself. The first one came from an early '70’s campaign for the Radio Advertising Bureau featuring artists such as Roger Miller, Glen Campbell, Ray Stevens and Dr. John singing new ‘radio’ lyrics to their original hits. This campaign was created by Chuck Blore.
The final jingle “Who Listens To Radio” was created by Stan Freberg back in the mid ‘60’s and features jazz legend Sarah Vaughan.
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Hear Doug Thompson's Celebrity Commercial Montage here.
(The Doug Thompson Collection)
Produced by Doug Thompson
More from Doug Thompson's Production Corner here.
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