The very name "advertainment" sends thrilling vibrations up the spine of anyone with marketing in their blood or communication in their genes. And it produces a strong shiver of disgust from many of my colleagues in the music industry.
"I don't want my songs to be involved in advertising," they say, forgetting entirely that by wearing branded running shoes, a t-shirt hawking Fender guitars and a baseball cap emblazoned with the Peavey logo, their very lives are involved in advertising. Plus, if they attend an awards show, they happily state the brand and designer names of everything they're wearing.
They further ignore the fact that radio itself is a form of advertainment. What gets played has little to do with musical accomplishment or artistic merit, but is directly related to the backing of large corporate distributors. I have been told to budget anywhere from a quarter of a million dollars to $350,000 in promotional costs to obtain national radio play on (the appropriately-named) commercial radio stations. Is it any wonder that corporations are seeking ways to build a little brand awareness into the songs?
Turn on any rap, urban or hip hop station and you can start counting the product mentions in the lyrics, some paid-for, some just happenstance. In the electronic-pop field, I have done it myself. On my "Electro Bop" album are songs such as "Paranormal Radio" (which begins as a documentary about American Technology Corporation's HyperSonic Sound system), "Sheena Sez" (about talk radio host Sheena Metal), and "Check the Tech" (about the joys of watching the TechTV channel).
Has this advertainment hurt acceptance of the album? Not that I've noticed. Many e-mails from around the world cite "Paranormal Radio" as their favorite track. Not one person has complained about the ad messages, I assume because the audience for my dance-oriented music is pleased to receive information about technology and a far-out rock-talk jock such as Ms. Metal.
Ads and entertainment go hand-in-wallet in many other ways, some pretty strange. In music alone, we have all wondered about Bob Dylan's "Love Sick" in Victoria's Secret commercials (not to mention Mr. D himself smirking between shots of the lovely bodies wearing the lingerie). But don't overlook Keith Richards in the "Cover Girl" ad while "Honky Tonk Women" plays, or Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger" in the Herbal Essence spot, or Iggy Pop's liquor/drug/sex-soaked "Lust for life" blasting throughout the Royal Caribbean commercials. (Love to work with the Account Executive who was able to sell that concept!) By contrast, Sting crooning from the back seat of a Jaguar seems a very model of demographic compatibility.
And that's the point: ads and public relations are routinely dismissed as silly, annoying, intrusive or a waste of time right up to the moment when they are delivering facts the reader or listener wants. Then, suddenly, the sponsored message is viewed as helpful and instructive. Therefore, the trick is to achieve the right match between audience and message.
One problem is choosing your media. Just listing advertising outlets can be daunting: TV, radio, outdoor, newspapers, magazines, transit, direct mail, Internet banner. Many of these have subsets: paid inserts (advertorial) in newspapers and magazines, sponsored "newsbreaks" and infomercials on broadcast media, static or animated announcements at stadia, those dreaded 'Net pop-ups, brand names on sports uniforms and equipment (can you say NASCAR?), etc.
One of the most enjoyable categories for producers of both music and advertising is viral 'Net marketing, which has had some notable success stories such as BMW Films, the Seinfeld AmEx campaign, and of course, Burger King's Subservient Chicken.
We haven't even considered cooperativ
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