Capitalism eats Flashmobs; Web is Doomed

T-Mobile has a new ad, filmed just a few days ago in Liverpool Street Station, London. Surprise! It’s a version of the uber-popular viral phenomenon: the flashmob. And it’s designed to let you know that T-Mobile is hip enough for you - and that advertisers are here to take over the Internet.

Not only was T-Mobile smart to catch a trend, they have also latched on to the primary way that people share media. Flashmobs in particular are spectacles that are made specifically for the Youtube era. Instead of waiting for a planes to belly-down into the Hudson, regular folks can gather to upset the status quo on their own, then get bunchloads of attention for it. Before Youtube, an event like this would make for a pretty placid one-liner retelling, prone to dribbling off with “well, I guess you just had to be there to see it…” No longer, sad storyteller. The small blip on your ‘things-to-know’ radar can become a rupture by benefit of online videos. Impressing your friends with your pantsless subway danceathon or whatever becomes a lot easier when you can show them exactly the awkward astonishment reaction you faced. Youtube not only made flashmobs popular - Youtube made them possible.

The flashmob’s appeal comes from its power to surprise, by briefly disrupting the normal operation of boring public institutions, like subway stations or libraries. Some flashmobs, like this Japanese one, are just for funsies. In every case, as public art or more overt protest, their appeal comes from the threat they pose to the rote normalcy of everyday life.

But now T-Mobile has gone and made a flashmob into an advertisement. It has taken the anti-stasis art-action-fun and turned it to facilitate its own institution. This is a perfect example of how capitalism co-opts everything spontaneous and installs into a rationalized system, transforming the surprising into the planned and commercialized.

On the other hand, some of our favorite art comes from advertising schemes, and has for several decades. Is it perhaps not such a bad thing for the workaday life to become more fun, embellished with touches of revelry? For work itself to become exciting and full of spectacle?

And by extension, ads like this acknowledge that people want more from their world. They would like more creativity and perhaps even more (relatively safe) suprises. If creative people fit into the world and make the world their own, does this mean that they will become part of a system that will ultimately make people into happy drones who generally accept weirdness and art? Is it bad to be a drone, if you’re happy?

I’ve been HAD, man, I’ve been HAD! So, I’ve been in love with/making fun of this great Chris Brown song, “Forever,” for the last few weeks - or at least since I saw Twitch and Comfort perform an awesome dance to the song (see below). Only - today I was listening to the song, and Nick said “did you know that song was made to be a jingle for Wrigley?” I just said “no way…” I had heard the line “double your pleasure, double your fun,” in the song, and I had just thought it was real odd. Turns out - it’s advertising! Pretty ingenious marketing, huh?

The ad is above, and I pasted the Wall Street Journal article below because it’s usually subscriber only. Check ‘em out. The thing is - I can’t hate on Chris Brown, because I love him (who doesn’t? I mean, he plays on Sesame Street with Elmo) and I can’t hate on Wrigley, because my uncle spent most of his life working for ‘em (or maybe, because of that, I should?). In this case, I’m not bemoaning capitalist infiltration of culture - I kind of just want to sit back and admire the incredible way it works. I’ve totally been had.

Oh- and I would like to point out my favorite part of the Wall Street Journal article:

“Mr. 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.”

Man … Chris Brown is like an enchanted child. I’m lovin’ it.

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.

Getty Images 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.

Getty Images 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 company

Mr. 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.

Write to Ethan Smith at ethan.smith@wsj.com and Julie Jargon at julie.jargon@wsj.com