Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Jingles: Rhythmic Instruction Manuals

Episode Date: February 7, 2026

This week, we look at a sub-category of jingles.Most successful jingles are catchy little earworms.But these particular little ditties use lyrics to tell you how to use the product, or how to play the advertised game.They’re not just catchy… they’re rhythmic instruction manuals.We know you want to listen to all the ads in this show. On the off-chance you don’t, subscribe ad-free here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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That's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer. Al-Ca-Seltzer will. What a relief. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. TV theme songs have always been a quirky art form. They are created to introduce the show every week, set a mood, and to create sonic branding.

The best ones become cultural touchstones, like the theme from Friends. The theme song from Cheers set a welcoming mood every week. The Bare Naked Ladies composed a theme song for the Big Bang Theory. The whole universe was in a hot dance state The nearly 14 billion years ago, Expansion started waiting. But there was another subcategory of TV theme songs.

They existed to remind you what the show's premise was every single week. Take the theme song for the Beverly Hillbillies from the 1960s. It's actually titled The Ballot of Jed Clampett. It was written by the creator of the Beverly Hillbillies, Paul Henning, and was performed by Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs, a bluegrass duo. Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed. A poor motte near barely kept his family fed. And then one day he was shooting at some food,

and up through the ground come a bumble and crew. The ballot of Jed Clampet was released as a single in 1962 and stayed at number one for three weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart. And every week, it would tell viewers how the Clampets came to be multi-millionaires and why they move to Beverly. A similar sitcom that aired at the same time was called Green Acres, about a wealthy Manhattan lawyer and his socialite wife who give up the big apple to move to a dilapidated farm.

Kind of the mirror image of the Beverly Hillbillies. Spreading out to far and wine Keep Manhattan Just give me that countryside It has the rare distinction Of being sung by the show's stars Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor And every week, the theme song

would reiterate the show's premise In tropical sea is a tropic port Vacation fun is the favorite sport When Sherwood Schwartz pitched the idea of Gilligan's Island to CBS, the network insisted that the premise of seven people shipwrecked on a small desert island was too complicated for viewers to remember week to week.

The original theme song was a calypso number, written by none other than John Williams, he of Star Wars fame. These five nice tourists, they take this trip, relaxing on deck on this little ship. So Schwartz decided to rewrite the theme song, to restate the premise every week. It was sung right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip

that started from this topping boy, this tiny ship. It was sung by a three-man singing group called The Wellington's, who eventually toured with Stevie Wonder and the Supremes. The theme song for WKRP in Cincinnati sung you the premise every week of how a motley group of people ended up working at a small radio station. It was a show I loved, because my first job was at a radio station just like it. They under whatever became a bee.

They're in Cincinnati, WKRP. Like the other theme songs, it explained everything in the lyrics, just in case you forgot week to week. The world of marketing has its own version of theme songs that explain everything in the lyrics. They are advertising jingles. But these ditties weren't just catchy. They worked harder than that. They actually told you how to use the product.

It's guaranteed some of these jingles had you humming and buying. And in one case we'll talk about today, viewers still beg the advertiser to, take the jingle off the air. You're under the influence. It's hard to believe, but 2026 is the 100th anniversary of the advertising jingle. So, let's take a trip down memory lane. As we've mentioned in a past episode, it is believed the earliest known jingle was for Wheaties, created back in 1926. Have you tried Whitties?

They're whole wheat with all of the brands. Won't you try, Wheaties, for wheat is the best food of man. Wheaties sales were in decline and were about to be discontinued when the cereal company decided to try something new on radio. That's when they hired a barbershop quartet to sing about Wheaties. When the jingle was broadcast nationally, it was so successful Wheaties soon became a leading breakfast cereal, and the Wheatie's quartet eventually starred in their own radio show.

It was an auspicious occasion, as it was the birth of the advertising jingle. We've all heard advertising jingles all our lives, and they peaked in the 50s and 60s. Here's one of my all-time favorites. You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with pepsodot. Another classic comes from the golden, arches.

You deserve a break today, so come on. This next one was written here in Canada for Smarties. My friend, Gary Gray, was inspired to write it when he noticed his young daughter and her friends always ate the red Smarties last. When you eat your Spardie, do you eat the Redmond's hot? Do you suck him very slowly or punch them very fast? Eat a panticoat and chocolate, but tell me when I ask,

when you eat your Smarmer, do you eat the Redwood's hot? All sticky, effective earworms. But today, I want to talk about a different kind of jingle, a subcategory that used lyrics to teach you how to use the product. They were rhythmic instruction manuals. Remember the clapper? It was an early home automation device that was sound activated. So when you clapped your hands, your lights would turn on,

or off. Now, in order to sell a gizmo like this, the inventors decided to use a jingle, and that jingle told you how the kooky clapper worked. Clap on, clap off, clap on, clap off the clapper. The clapper could also control your TV, your stereo, and even the lights on your Christmas tree.

Clap on, clap off, the clapper. That kitchy little instruction manual, sure worked. Over seven million clappers were sold, and it was a perennial seller for over 30 years. And you can still find it today. The famous Alka-Seltzer jingle became part of pop culture. While it was certainly catchy, it also taught you something about the product. As we've mentioned in a past episode, advertising whiz, Mary Wells-Lorence, landed the Alka-Seltzer account in the mid-70s. She had a meeting with a doctor at Miles Laboratories, the company that produced Alka-Seltzer.

The doctor mentioned that in order for aspirin to soothe pain, it often required two tablets. Because aspirin was one of the ingredients in Alka-Seltzer, Mary asked if two Alka-Seltzer tablets would work better than one. The answer was yes. So Mary had the directions on the package changed to, say, take two tablets, and she put this change. on television. Plop, plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh, what a relief it is. Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz jingle lyric was a reminder to take two tablets instead of one.

With that tiny change, Alka-Seltzer doubled its sales. One more thing. I bet you didn't know the composer of that jingle had a connection to the Beatles. The Alka-Seltzer jingle was written by Tom Dumbled. Dawes. In 1966, Dawes was in a band called The Circle, spelled C-Y-R-K-L-E. That odd spelling was suggested by none other than John Lennon. The Circle had a big hit with a song called Red Rubber Ball. That hit caught the ear of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who then hired the Circle to tour

with the Beatles that year. When the Circle broke up, Dawes became a little bit of made jingle composer on Madison Avenue. And the rest is Plop Plop Fizz Fizz History. Mr. Clean is a Proctor and Gamble product that was launched in 1958. It was one of the first all-purpose household cleaners and the public had to be informed that Mr. Clean could be used for a multitude of purposes.

P&G called it Magic in a bottle. So advertising agency Tatum layered in Chicago developed the Mr. Clean mascot, a big ball genie who popped out of the bottle. A jingle was produced, and it taught people how to use the product. Mr. Clean gets rid of dirt and grime and grease in just a minute. Mr. Clean will clean your whole house and everything that's in it. Floors, doors, walls, halls, white sidewall, tires, and old golf balls.

Thinks those backcups he'll do, he'll even help clean laundry too. Mr. Clean gets rid of dirt. Grime and grease in just a minute. Mr. Clean will clean your whole house and everything that's in it. Can he clean a kitchen sink? Quicker than a wink. Can he clean a window sash? Faster than a flash.

Can he clean a dirty mirror? He'll make it bright and clearer. Can he clean a diamond ring? Mr. Clean cleans anything. Mr. Clean gets rid of... That's a long list of product uses, and I notice it also said Mr. Clean could even clean white sidewall tires and old golf balls.

Hmm. Within six months, Mr. Clean was the number one household cleaner in the country. And Mr. Clean has been starring in ads for over six decades now. Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean. When we come back, a fruit company uses a jingle to persuade people to keep bananas out of the fridge. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like Sound and Vision album covers as marketing, season 9, episode 4, where we tell the story of how one of the best albums of all time ended up with the worst cover of all time.

You'll find the episode on your favorite podcast app. Back in 1947, the United Fruit Company had a problem. People weren't buying enough Chiquita bananas. It turned out that people were putting bananas in the fridge, and that meant they kept longer, which was bad for business. So the United Fruit Company commissioned an animated commercial featuring a mascot called Miss Chiquita, and she sang a jingle that told people bananas tasted best when they turned brown.

Takeda banana, and I've come to say, bananas have to ripen in a certain way, They're flecked with brown and have a golden hue. Pananas taste the best and are the best for you. You can put them in a salad. Please? No, not yet, my dear. That greenish way you're looking means that you are ripe for cooking.

How about me? No, no. When you are fully ripe, my dear, those little flecks of brown appear. Me? You're most digestible, my friend. Delicious, too, from end to end. Then Miss Chiquita told people not to put them in the fridge. But bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator.

So you should never put bananas in the refrigerator. When bananas turned brown, they were past their best before date. Therefore, people would have to buy more of them. By keeping bananas out of the fridge, Chiquita Banana sang all the way to the bank. Speaking of bananas, one of my favorite games when I was a kid was barrel of monkeys. My brother and I would play it for hours. The point of the game was to hook 12 monkeys in a chain arm to arm, but if you dropped one, you lost your turn.

We first saw the game on television, and the jingle told us everything we needed to know. Now this is my game so easy to play. Empty the barrel, pick up a monkey, hook them together. The inventor was a trick is to make a chain of twelve. The inventor was a man named Leonard Marks. He was a greeting card salesman. One day, while waiting for a shop owner,

Marx began playing with an open box of snow tire chain links. He was having so much fun, time flew by. He wondered if something like this could be turned into a game. So Marx went to a local toy designer and explained the concept. He asked if it was possible to design the chain links to be more fun. The designer first created multicolored S-hooks, but then something dawned on him. The S-hooks looked a bit like monkeys.

So he redesigned the plastic S-hooks to be monkeys, with their long arms shaped like a figure S. Marks pitched the monkey game to a big toy company. He dumped the monkeys onto a desk, and showed the executives how to play the game. They loved it. And Mark said, It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

And that sounded like a slogan. Nothing's more fun than a barrel of monkeys. With that, the toy company bought the rights to the game. A plastic barrel was created, and 12 colorful monkeys were put inside. They chose 12 monkeys specifically, because it allowed 3 to 12-year-olds to link the monkeys,

without having to stand on a stool. It has been another perennial seller ever since, and Time Magazine ranked barrel of monkeys at number 53 on its all-time 100 greatest toys list. Games and toys employed lots of jingles back in the day, and many of those catchy ditties told kids how to use the toys. Remember the easy-bake oven? It was launched way back in 1963.

I'm sure when it first appeared, parents thought, are you really trying to sell an oven to my kids? Well, the jingle put them at ease. Easy bake, easy bake, fast as you can. Mix them up, mix them up, pour them in the pan. Slide them in, slide them in, let them bake now. Slide them in, slide them out, easy bake. Wow!

Not only did the catchy jingle inform parents what the oven did, it soon became the number one desire of little girls everywhere. Made by Kenner, it sold over 500,000 Easy Bake Ovens in the first year alone. By 1997, more than 16 million had been sold. And every November 4th is National Easy Bake Oven Day. Who knew? If you're of a certain vintage, you may remember a game called Pop-O-Matic Trouble. And if you do remember it, I bet you'll remember this jingle that told you how to play it.

Have you got trouble? Wait, don't run. of trouble is lots of fun. Pop-O-Matic, pops the dice, and you move twice. Race your men around the track and try to send the others back. That's pop-o-matic trouble.

The game is fun for dad and mother and Sisk and trouble her mean old brother. Trouble, trouble, that's the name of Coner's Pop-O-Matic game. Another big game at the time was Twister. Originally called Pretzel, Twister was developed to be an adult party game. It came with a large mat that had big-colored

dots on it. Twister! Milton Bradley has a new one. It's a twister. Twistled and dangled. It's a twister. As you just heard, the game also came with a spinner. Players would spin it, and it would tell you what color to place your hand and foot on.

Foot blue. Right, foot blue. Left hand red. Left hand red. Left. Yellow. Blue. Breathe.

Yeah, Twister. You gotta play twister. Now, if both men and women played the game, it was tight quarters, hands and feet intertwined in some suggestive ways. As a matter of fact, some retailers refused to carry Twister, calling it sex in a box. Sales were sluggish, until Johnny Carson played Twister with TV star Eva Gabor on the Tonight Show. Once viewers saw how fun it was and how naughty it could be, it sold a little. over three million games in his first year. With the help of the jingle, it became a national phenomenon.

Games magazine included Twister in its list of top 100 games, saying it was a popular party game for people who don't mind getting better acquainted. Slinky was another toy that benefited from a jingle that told you how to use it. It was created by a naval mechanical engineer who knocked a spring off his shelf by mistake and watched it walked down a pile of books. Sensing it could be turned into a fun toy, he showed his wife, who said it kind of slinked along, which led to the name Slinky. Because the toy just looked like a big spring, the jingle had to tell people how it worked.

Slinky toys are fun toy. What walks downstairs, a loner in pairs and makes the slinkety sound. A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing. Everyone knows it's slinky It gives a big lift When wraps a gift A very likable toy It's falling in place

Bring smiles to your face Something kids can enjoy It's slinky, it's slinky For fun, it's a wonderful toy It's slinky, it's fun for a girl and a boy It became one of the longest running jingles In advertising history And note that the jingles said it was a fun toy

For both boys and girls In its first 60 years, over 300 million Slinkies were sold, placing it firmly in the National Toy Hall of Fame. There's Slinkies, they're fun for girls and boys. When we come back, a highly effective jingle that has been called the Coronavirus of Commercials. While most of the jingles we've talked about are from back in the day, when jingles were king, There is one particular jingle that runs frequently today. We get a lot of emails about ads people hate,

but I have to say we get more hate mail about this jingle than almost any other commercial. One-eight-seven cars for kids. You'll get a vacation voucher and maximum tax deduction. The Cars for Kids organization says it wrote the James for Kids organization says it wrote the in-house. The business model is to convert donated cars into cash, through auto auctions or selling them to scrapyards. Then the funds are given to various charities that benefit families and their children. On the Cars for Kids website, it says the jingle has been running continuously for 20 years, first on radio, then later on television, where it has generated some colorful comments.

Saturday Night Live did a sketch saying the jingle was one of the CIA's torture methods. Vulture's entertainment news website said the jingle would bring end times. On last week tonight, host John Oliver said the jingle was the coronavirus of commercials, it's horrifically infectious, and ruins people's lives. On the actual Cars for Kids website, there is a frequently asked question. section. The last question on the page is, can you please change your jingle? The Cars for Kids answer is no, because it works. Considering how catchy and memorable jingles are, it's surprising they have largely been abandoned by the advertising industry. Several of the jingles we played today

are over 60 years old, and I bet a lot of you remembered every single word. Jingles are a hard-working art form. It's not easy to create a 30-second piece of music that is so catchy, people hum it. And it's doubly hard to create a jingle with difficult lyrics that tell you how to use the product or play the game. But some very talented composers were able to craft many memorable earworms. These rhythmic instruction manuals became part of the cultural landscape, lasted for years and sold millions of products. Some jingles made you smile, some were annoyingly effective,

and a surprising number still reside on our cranial shelves when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terstream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer Debbie O'Reilly, Chief Sound Engineer Jeff Devine, theme music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aiton. Tunes provided by APM music. Follow me at Terry O Influence.

This podcast is powered by ACAST. Terry's top slogans of all time. Number 18. M&Ms. Melt's in your mouth, not in your hand. See you next week.