We live in a world in which we are bombarded by mass media messages and advertisements.
When you watch television, your show is halted every fifteen minutes or so for advertisments, never mind all the product placement that takes place during the program. While you drive down the road or take the bus, you also come across hundreds, if not thousands, of these messages pasted across billboards, signs and walls.
Most of us have mastered the art of simply tuning out all these images. We manage to focus on something else rather than to give our attention to the nagging little infomercials and flashing signs. But there happens to be one type of advertisement that none of us can seem to escape. Radio ads and jingles.
While many radio stations have started to air prolonged periods of music, during which time there are no radio advertisements, advertising is a massive revenue generator for radio stations and they cannot completely avoid airing these ads.
As soon as I say radio jingles what comes to mind?
For the majority of us living in “Peg city” we instantly think of mattress ads, do we not? It seems like both Best Sleep Centre Inc. and Sleep Country Canada have it out for each other.
“Best Sleep Centre, you’ll find us!” and “Sleep Country Canada — why buy a mattress anywhere else?” They battle it out through a series of jingles, each ad offering a better deal than the other.
The scary thing is that if you have ever listened to the radio for a prolonged period of time in this great city, you know exactly what I am talking about in quoting these ads.
Their pervasiveness begs the question: When it comes to radio jingles, whether it be mattress ads, bottled water or what have you, what is the reality of the effectiveness that they have on us as consumers?
The average person will claim not to be affected by advertisements in general, but is there a deep-rooted psychological response that we have to advertisements? Different studies suggest that we are exposed to anywhere from 200-2,000 advertisements every day through all different means. When we are exposed to such a volume of messages, the question then becomes: How are we not affected by them?
The radio jingle has been around a lot longer than I have and has been edging itself into peoples minds for countless years. It seems to have an extra edge on other advertising competition because it is more difficult to evade.
You can change the radio station the same way you can change the television channel, but it is less likely to happen. Reason being is that radio advertisements are few and far between, while television ads are so regular that they can be anticipated.
From our mattresses to the food that we eat, we are all in some way affected by the magnitude of advertisements that we are shown. Some of us might find a jingle catchy and in turn, when we are shopping, instinctively purchase that item. In the same way, some of us are put off with the annoyance of a jingle and end up staying far away from that product.
So, does the radio jingle complete its purpose of luring the consumer? I don’t know, but it comes pretty darn close.
In a way the radio jingle manages to sneak a way into our every life and invade our subconscious mind; it manages to keep the listeners attention by virtue of being short and sweet. It has stood the test of time, and, until the radio becomes obsolete, the radio jingle will be there, finding some sort of cleaver way to embed itself deep within your mind.
