Category Archives: musings

Ad Targeting for Beautiful People

Remember Sarah Ripley, the future of marketing?

She emailed me a link to this TaB commercial from the olden days (well, the ’80s).
Her observation was that with only a jingle, the commercial was very simple. No voiceover, no copy, no actors reading lines. Couldn’t be easier.

I was curious about another thing.

After I watched the ad, the jingle was stuck in my head. Don’t you just hate that?

“TaB cola has a beautiful taste
So good for beautiful people
TaB cola beautiful to you and me
‘Cause every can has less than two calories
TaB cola helps a beautiful shape
Just right for beautiful people
TaB cola tastes so good to you
Great taste low calorie TaB”

The line that stuck with me was “So good for beautiful people” and again near the end, “Just right for beautiful people.”

I got to thinking about it. You could never say that in spoken copy without sounding like a total jackass. “Enjoy TaB, the preferred drink of beautiful people.”

How strange that you can sing it, and slip it right past the judgmental left brain. Huh.

A good jingle can be very powerful. Because music is processed by the right hemisphere of the brain, you can take in a message and remember quite disturbing thoughts if you do so in lyrics. Think about songs such as the MASH Theme, Mack the Knife and any country song about adultery.

So, it was actually quite brilliant of TaB to slip in an unspoken message through song rather than announcer voiceover.

Can you think of any other jingles that do this to us?

BrandingBlog Radio: CJ Romberger on Connecting

An interview with CJ Romberger is a tough thing to nail down. I finally got her to sit still long enough to have a recording session on a day when she is monitoring half-a-dozen wildfires near her Austin home, AND trying to work, AND keep track of a whole bunch of other people. I think that’s kind of funny, and if you know CJ, you’ll find the humor in it.

We talked mainly about the rules of engagement in online communication for businesses (and people who work at businesses.)

I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from CJ as the podcasting continues…

Contact info for CJ Romberger:

Her personal blog

CJ on Facebook

Wildwood Interactive

Your Weekend Assignment: IBM Centennial Film

Back in 1984, I was working as a communications intern at the IBM Research and Manufacturing plant in Boulder, CO. It was an amazing place to be, 5,000 employees working at a single facility on the Diagonal Highway. Heck, there were only 6,000 in the town I grew up in.

I was there when the PC came out. I remember our department getting the first PC at the entire plant. People would come in just to look at it.

I watched this video and got choked up a few times. You’ll see how IBM was there for so many of the key moments that define the times that we live in today. Most of these innovations are things that we take for granted today. Making an airline reservation, calling 911, barcodes, motherboards, personal computers, space flight and even beautiful fractals from Benoît B. Mandelbrot.

So, I admit to being a bit biased. But, trust me, this is 30 minutes well spent. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Please…let me know your favorite moments in the comments.