How advertising jingles influence our buying choices (and why we can still sing them decades later)

Even if we haven’t listened to them for many years, well-known songs often stick with us for life. We can often remember all the lyrics to songs we learned as kids or albums we idolized as teenagers. But beyond the music we’ve intentionally chosen to listen to or learn, one type of music seems to elude us without any effort: the jingle.

Jingles have a long history in the advertising industry. The first known UK radio jingle – Have You Tried Wheaties? – was launched in 1926. Since then, jingles have become an important feature of our daily lives.

Recent market research found that several of the ten most recognizable jingles for adults in the UK date back three or even four decades. Although comparison site Go Compare topped the list, Mars’ jingle “work, rest and play” (mid-1990s) and even Shake ‘n’ Vac “rest the cool” (1980) still boil in the head of the respondents.

So why do these songs hook us? And what effect does this have on what we buy?

Jingles become memorable in different ways. Some advertisers use familiar songs, which are inherently easier to remember, in a new context. For example, the Go Compare jingle uses the traditional song Over There and combines it with the comical visual element of an over-the-top opera singer. The “Just one Cornetto” campaign (launched in 1981) also takes a classic tune (O sole mio) and modifies it to sell ice cream.

Other jingles make use of musical elements that make them prone to becoming “earworms,” ​​those tunes that get stuck in our heads whether we like them or not. In research that examined a large collection of pop music, my team found that the songs most likely to become earworms had upbeat beats, often in the range that would make a person want to dance. Many jingles, such as “Do the Shake ‘n’ Vac” and “I feel like Chicken Tonight” fit this pattern.

In fact, other research has shown that when people move or sing catchy songs, they are more likely to experience those songs as earworms. It’s also been found that having a stick for a song you’ve learned recently means you’ll remember it better later on.

Lyrics can also play an important role in the memorability of a song or product. The alliterative lyrics of “Maybe it’s Maybelline” ensure that even a consumer who has never heard of this brand will easily remember its name the next time they are in the store.

Links to other moments in our lives

It is not just the characteristics of the music that give jingles a stronghold in our memories. Music tends to be intimately associated with the contexts in which we have heard it. That is, it is often closely intertwined with autobiographical memories of our lives.

So hearing a jingle from our childhood can bring back memories not only of hearing that song, but also of the living room where we grew up and the feeling of sitting around the TV with the family watching together. Therefore, jingles can be a strong trigger of nostalgia.

Research has shown that the period between the ages of ten and 25 tends to be remembered most vividly. Musical cues are also the best for tapping into memories during this period, which is known as the “reminiscence bump.”

Consistent with this, the same consumer research also revealed different jingle recognition rates between age groups. For example, for millennials, McDonalds’ “I’m lovin’ it” ranked second on the list of most recognized jingles, and “Maybe it’s Maybelline” ranked fifth.

Some brands also explicitly aim to combine this nostalgic element with staying fashionable. Maybelline recently reinvented its jingle, incorporating elements of dance music to appeal to the Gen Z audience while retaining the characteristics of the classic 90s jingle that connects millennials with their youth.

So does writing a memorable jingle help sell a product? In short, yes. Research examining choices for two products in the same category (eg, cameras) showed that products paired with a familiar tune were more likely to be chosen than those paired with an unfamiliar tune.

However, liking music also independently affected product choice. In particular, music that participants really didn’t like tended to dissuade them from choosing a product even if the tune was familiar. This suggests that advertisers need to carefully consider the musical preferences of their target market, beyond simply writing catchy songs.

Music has a strong hold on our memories. The same features that help us learn the alphabet through music or transport us back to the first dance at our wedding also mean we can effortlessly remember which cleaning product promises to make washing machines live longer.