I know where Elvis was hiding......

...and it wasn't at the Kalamazoo Burger King... a UFO... or anything else the Weekly World News came up with in the 1980's.

He was hangin' out at a Canadian post office.

Can you think of any other reason why a Canadian Crown Corporation (aka serious government agency) would use the American icons' hit song to promote their efforts to get Canadians to put the right postage on their love letters?

Ok, let's see - the 1960's were the "oldies" of the 1980's, that helps (I guess they weren't targeting teens for this jingle even then they didn't use snail mail!) Elvis still had momentum in the early and late 1960's and his death in the late 70's was still fresh in people's minds.

"Return to Sender" is from the 1962 movie "Girls Girls Girls" and hits of the 60's were used a lot in 80's advertising. It's catchy, it talks about exactly what Canada Post want to focus on... return to sender for incorrect postage. Sure, makes perfect sense.

Still, something just doesn't seem right. Case in point, my home province of Nova Scotia's tourism department got dragged through the mud by the public a few years ago for using the Jesus Jones song "Right Here, Right Now" in their campaigns for one year - people were saying we should have used a home grown artist and song to promote the province. Maybe that's why this jingle doesn't sit well with me.

Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this, and I should take it for what's worth, a fun, slightly foolish and catchy take on getting those Canucks to slap on the right postage so those posties won't have to do more work then they have to. It's been 25 years this September, I wonder if their efforts ever paid off?

Enjoy!

From 1985, Canada Post Post Office "Return To Sender" # CAN-R60-2229
Produced by McKim Advertising Limited
Reel From Panfor Dubbing Ltd Toronto




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Radio Hucksters.....Off the Rack Jingles Part 1

This is the first in what hopes to be a large number of posts of "off the rack" jingles that have been produced over the years. Off the Rack jingles can be compared to clothing, sometimes you have it custom made, sometimes you just buy it "off the rack". Most of the time jingles are custom produced or custom sung to a package, but some of the stuff you hear is totally generic for a reason, so anyone can use it at almost any time.

Little seems to be found online for Lang Worth Feature Programs Inc, but suffice it to say they were a service which supplied jingles, feature programs and even music to radio stations in the 1930s 40s and 50s. Lang Worth was one of several, NBC Thesaurus, World Broadcasting System, Standard Broadcast Library, all provided necessary elements to enhance local radio stations of the time, as this was before record companies realized the value of supplying free promotional records to radio. Material was delivered on 16 inch radio transcription discs, or smaller, and often discarded after time. Fortunately, someone left a few in a radio station attic (among a few 100 odd 16 radio transcript discs) in the 1980s and this is how I came across them.

From 1957, we have some "Radio Hucksters" from Lang Worth. These jingles could be used to wrap around live or recorded commerical copy to enhance the spot. Campy now, but not back then......enjoy!

From 1957, Radio Hucksters
Produced by Lang Worth Feature Programs

Safety Driving # 1 (open and close)





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Safety Driving # 2 (open and close)




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Sporting Goods-Hunting




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Tires-General




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Tires-Price





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There's just something not right......

...about a happy jingle about store selling adult entertainment. I mean, it's not something you brag to friends. in amongst the sport scores can you imagine saying "..did you check out the latest ron jeremy video down at"....or maybe "wow that buns of europe video is hot down at.."???? Really!

Still, this seems an effort to make "adults only" a mainstream, nowhere as seedy as you expect these places to be, type of image for the stores. With lyrics like "...where you feel so right at home.." it really puts an interesting picture in my head of guys with trenches coats walking around the store and..well....you can get your own seedy picture in your head. To me, it's just a bad idea.

It's a bad idea that has a bit of entertainment value...enjoy!

Date and Producer Unknown
"Adults Only" Video Stores
:30 Full Sing.




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Let's talk...ok SING..about Wieners......

...Get your mind outta the gutter will ya?

This LP cover in a window in a record store I stumbled on in Portland Maine on vacation in May when it was closed made me itch to visit the store when it was open. I was determined to buy this record. why? come on. The title made me fall in love at first site. Like some curvy young female with lots of T and A to a record collector with a love for the odd and not so common, even unusual, it was like finding the holy grail. OK, maybe not exactly the holy grail, but close to it. Fortunately, I left the store some $50 poorer but with some great finds I would never have found if it weren't for this record. Cool eh? well I think so.

From 1971, one can only wonder why there records were pressed, as the label says "not for broadcast" but I can't think of a better purpose then promotion. It's not something I'd play over and over on the console stereo in mom and dads rec room as me and my friends sit down and eat a oscar meyer weiner that mom cooked up for lunch. Still, it gives an idea of diversity that marketing will go to to get their product out to as many people as possible. enjoy.

Oscar Meyer Jingles (1971)

Agency: J Walter Thompson Company

"Six Wild ways to say-I'd Love to be an Oscar Meyer Weiner"

(from the LP Liner notes)

Bossa Nova





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Country and Western




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Dixie





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Motown





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Tijuana




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Vienna Symphony




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We Want to Sing About Your Business...

It's been a bit busy for me travelling of late, what with the trip to maine and last weekend to Charlottetown PEI last weekend, but back on track to add some material to the blog!

I was cleaning out the "library" in the basement when I found this tape. Most people have books, I have vinyl records, and cassettes and reel to reel tapes from the last 50 odd years. It's my own personal museum of audio I suppose.

Anyway, this seems to be a demo reel from an advertising agency, jingle production company or something in between. From the sound of the jingles on the tape, I would put it between mid to late 1960s. What's kind of funny about this tape is the lack of quality for the guy doing the narration. I can really picture him in some high priced office with not a lot of furniture taking breaks between reading the copy and flipping the pause control on the reel tape recorder (which you can hear by the way!) to get it to sound like he intended. I guess a recording studio was a little too expensive to record for the narration?

In any event, it's a great basic explanation of how jingles and advertising work for a business that still holds up to this day, and the delightfully dated jingles (both within the narration and after the end of the presentation) make it worth a spot here on the jetsam.


1960s Jingle Company Demo...(runs 14:37) (MONO)
Company is Unknown.




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Goo Goo Ga Ga......Some 60's Camp....

It's been a bit since I posted some spots, for a variety of reasons, one of was a trip to the good ole USA. I lucked out at a record store with some strange and weird records (which I usually go for and often use on my weekly salute to the wacky warped and weird at www.cheezepleeze.com) but this site benefits here too, with some ET's. (or electrical transcriptions) of commericals of the 1960s.

The Term Electrical Transcription goes back to the late 1920s-early 30s method of recording radio programs ahead of time for air. Most went out live, but some did get recorded to a technology that failed to put sound to motion picture, but grew into the main format for recording for radio for decades. the 16 inch transcription disc was the father of the "LP" record perfected in 1948 by Columbia. The Transcription also played at 33 1/3, had a 15 min capacity on each side (LP's ran 15-20 minutes usually) and instead of using a "microgroove" stylus that the LP used, it used a 78 style needle. Keep in mind, this is all before tape was perfected by the Germans in the 1930s, adopted by the americans in the post world War II period of the late 1940s, and put into widespread use in the mid 1950s. Until Then the ET Ruled the radio airwaves with radio programs, recorded music, and also, commericals.

As the technology changed radio with the Broadcast Tape Cartridge in 1959 (the father of the 8 track, but that's another story!) so did the ET. it reduced to the equilvalent of the 12 inch LP record. It was still a practical way to get recorded material out to stations, be it full programs or commericals. Once it got to the station, it was often rerecorded to cartridge for actual air, and the disc put on the shelf and kept on hand until it was outdated. Eventually, reels of tape, then CDs and now mp3's would eventually replace the ET, but thanks to that format we have some material to post today on the jetsam. Over time, I will post all of the ET formatted spots I found in the US, but let's start off with one.





From 1966, an incredibly dated and influenced by the Folk craze of just a few years previous, comes this series of spots for Gerber Baby Foods, a company who's been around for at least since 1928, when the actual baby was introduced. Agghenanged as they are on the one sided disc:

Agency: D'Arcy Advertising Company, NYC

Gerber Products Company
Gerber Baby Foods
From ET # 2354
03/28/1966

Baby Specialists GF-10





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High Meat Dinners GF-3




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Strained and Junior Foods GF-7







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Rice Cereal GF-8




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Variety GF-9

Lifestyles of those Schillin for Mufflers.......

I can't help but wonder what ad agency came up with combining how much you can save by using Meineke's muffler and brake services with how you can live like "Life Styles of the Rich and Famous" host Robin Leach, or the wealthy people he profiles on his syndicated TV show from 1984-1995. For that matter, who convinced Robin's agent to do these so-so radio spots for Mieneke doing the famous line "you're not going to pay a lot for this muffer" with a guy who comes off like he lights cigars with 100 dollar bills? If the guy gave a flying F*** about the cost of pretty much anything is really not my idea of a great way to promote how you can save money by going to meineke, as we all know you're not going to save enough to go to dizzy world on vacation, but I suppose commericals tend have a bit of a license to embellish and exaggerate just a bit now don't they?

From 1992, here's 6, count em, 6 60 spots with Robin Leach proving he may sorta live like the Rich and Famous, but even if mufflers come a callin, Money talks.

Meineke Mufflers Feat. Robin Leach
Producer and Agency Unknown
REEL ONE
(1) Family :60
(2) Fisherman :60
(3) Gourmands :60




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REEL TWO
(1) Airplane GEN 1 :60
(2) Auction GEN 2 :60





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REEL THREE
(1) Nobody/Canada Mp3 :60