The greatest jingles in advertising aren't the best songs in advertising. If that were the case, no one could dispute that Chili's "I Want My Baby Back" tune is the greatest commercial jingle ever. It's not even close – that song is even better than the "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Coke jingle from the early 1970s that became a pop hit.
Alas, that's not the standard. The best jingles are those that stick with you. That you find yourself humming. The jingles that immediately make you think of the product.
Historically, we've had great jingles that reached this level: The very-short "Clap on, clap off" for The Clapper; "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" for Almond Joy and Mounds; "Yummy, yummy in my tummy" for Beefaroni and Beef-O-getti, "The best part of waking up" for Folgers.
You get the point.
But the songs don't have to be good to be effective (is the "song" for the clapper even a song? It's not clear. Maybe it's a chant). And in an era when TV show theme songs have gotten much, much shorter (true fact: The theme for "Gilligan's Island" was 2 minutes, 21 seconds. A typical modern TV theme song is a 15-second instrumental), the same is true for jingles.
But they're still good. And I now present the eight greatest current jingles, based on how effectively they stick in your brain and make you think of their product.
8. O'Reilly Auto Parts. I've never been in one of their stores, but I respect their hustle – purely because of the yelp at the end of their jingle. The O-O-O'Reilly part at the start is good, too.
7. Nationwide. If I asked you what insurance company is on your side, you'd know: Nationwide, since that's the key lyrics in their jingle. This is the most vanilla of these jingles, which is saying something, so the biggest problem is that it might blend into the background like a song by the Carpenters. But it still works.
6. Popeyes Chicken. The modern, shorter version of the Chili's song. This has a bit of funk to it. "Love that chicken at Popeye's" is catchy, fun and presents the facts: Popeye's sells chicken. It works.
5. Liberty Insurance. A simple lyric: "Liberty, Liberty, Liberty . . . Liberty," works, even if you don't like the "Liberty Biberty" guy or other variations of the theme. Like KC and the Sunshine Band, the writer of this jingle leaned into simplicity and it worked.
4. Living Spaces. I'm not entirely clear what Living Spaces does (I guess it's a furniture store), so I'm not sure it works for making me call them. But if I needed a space to live, they'd probably come in handy.
3. JG Wentworth. The financial services company has a variety of operatic commercials that let you know that if you have a structured settlement, but you need cash now, where to call. You know the number (877-CASH-NOW) because you hear the song in your head now.
2. Safelite. Mrs. Brad often sings the four-word jingle: "Safelite repair, Safelite replace," so when my windshield had a crack, I immediately called Safelite. Unfortunately, they had to replace, not repair the windshield, but their theme song worked. Simple and clean.
1. Kars-4-Kids. You hate it, I hate it, everyone hates it. But who would you think of first if you want to donate your car? And what's their phone number? See? You know both! Their insistence on having snotty little kids pretend to be a band while singing the song indicates that either they're unaware of how they come across or they're in on the joke. Hopefully the latter, because this jingle works. Unfortunately, too well.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
