One hundred twenty-six million Americans tuned into the big game this year. Among the music heard during the much-celebrated commercials (at $8 million for a 30-second ad) were Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” The Who’s “Baba O’ Riley,” one of the more talked about featured Seal singing his “Kiss From a Rose” and even that track is 30 this year.
Expedia recently used Clarence Henry’s 1961 track “But I Do” and Steppenwolf also appeared last year in a Pampers ad campaign ostensibly targeting young parents.
What’s fascinating is that the “mad men” (and women) seem to have no issue regularly using “oldies,” i.e., 1960s hits, in their ads, but they balk at the idea of media serving up the music.
The argument is flawed in two ways: first, as evidenced by what I’d imagine is focus group studied ads, old songs don’t only appeal to old people, and second, older Americans have most of the disposable income, and they’ll spend it in several categories.
Why is there this schism in what is acceptable to ad agencies and what is not? Why do advertisers refuse to reach upper demos when the idea that “older people are set in their ways and not susceptible to ad messaging” is much more outdated than the ’60s hits too taboo to build a format around?
Today’s 70-year-old is not living the lifestyle a 70-year-old did 70 years ago, even 25. Madison Avenue might be wise to update their thinking on demos (and again, gold songs and formats test with people who didn’t grow up with them also) as they have with creative.
The Kendrick Lamar Halftime Show was polarizing, but the NFL was convinced to go young. Soon-to-be 83-year-old Paul McCartney played a pop-up show in New York at a dive bar Tuesday, and it sold out in seconds with a stand-by line, causing a traffic issue in the city.
Whose song would you want in your client’s ad? And who WOULDN’T want that broad Sir Paul fandom?!
Also Steppenwolf had other hits guys just saying, use “Sookie Sookie” or “Rock Me” next time!
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Robby Bridges works for Press Communications where he serves as the VP of Programming for 99.7 and 107.1 The Boss. He also hosts the morning show ‘Robby and Rochelle’ alongside his wife, Rochelle. He’s been with the company/stations since September, 2021.
Prior to arriving in New Jersey, Robby spent decades working across the country in many top markets for many highly successful brands. Among them include Z100, WPLJ and Q102. He has also worked in Detroit, Boston, Providence, Portsmouth, NH, and served as an exclusive guest host for Scott Shannon on the True Oldies Channel.
To get in touch, reach Robby by email at RobbyBridges@hotmail.com.
