Film and Really Any Other

¶ … film and really any other kind of media or entertainment advertisement has become increasingly complicated as the years go by. Yet, as soon as it was possible to marry sound and film music became a part of visual media, and advertizing especially. The use of music in advertising serves the purpose of setting the tone of the message or eliciting a certain mood when one is viewing or listening to advertizing, which the advertiser then hopes is associated with the emotion and/or impulse needed to seek out the product and buy it.

Advertisers can use a well-known musical piece, a piece designed specifically for the ad or even popular music that expresses or attempts to manipulate the viewer or listener into feeling a certain emotion and then associating it with the product being advertized. Not unlike film the tempo of the music as well as the lyrics or other aspects of the music are meant to build emotion and therefore elicit a response from the listener that corresponds with the message of the advertisement or creates a longer lasting memory of it than the advertisement would without the use of music. The tempo can be fast or redundant such as in the case of advertizing or sending a message of rapid response or it can be tranquil and responsive to romantic or dreamy emotional message about the product.

Several advertisements from the last few years stand out for their use of musical scores that elicit emotion and create a memorable expression. Two very recent ads that can serve as examples of this are the Keiser Permanente ad from 2008 that utilized a not very well-known popular tune, "When I Grow Up I want to Be and Old Woman," by Michelle Shocked, juxtaposed to pictures of real old women doing active, endearing and comical things. The ad uses the music to change the tone of the message, expressing the real beauty and character of joy in old age and denotes good health, i.e. preventative health with achieving the goal of reaching health and joy in old age. Without the very memorable score the ad would simply denote that old women can be comical rather than joyful and active, a completely different message than the advertisers hoped to portray. Even two years after the ad aired the message as well as the music are memorable to those who viewed it. The music itself, separated from the old lady images is memorable, yet alone it has very little of the same message. The ad and accompanying music was in fact so memorable that it caused a storm of interest in the music itself with many seeking to find out where that song came from and who produced it, so they could forever link it to the emotional imagery of healthy old women. The fact that this imagery is so moving, has to do with the music itself, which is done in a rockabilly style. With minimal cord changes, simple form, simple lyrics and simplified arrangements, and limited instrumentation heavy on percussion that none the less combined to create a very full sound. The song itself is in fact the epitome of the rockabilly style, a simplified musical style and a single accompanying voice, expressing simple and repetitive lyrics.

A second very recent example (2010), likely to be less memorable but none the less effective, is the currently running Degree Deodorant ad with the acoustic instrumental banjo music, where the young man rides down a dangerous and hilly trail with no tire on the front of his bike, and the music builds the adventure. The music is a single banjo playing ravvivando, as the mountain biker is seen narrowly escaping sheer disaster over and over but meets the tire of his bike at the close of the segment, presumably analogues to the product being able to respond to perspiration and emotional heightening.