Will People Fast-Forward Through a Show About Ads?
Mark Burnett Intends to Find Out With New CBS Reality Series About Jingle-Writing

Posted by Mike Tunnicliffe in Ad Age Songs For Soap on 04.15.08 @ 02:56 PM



Who says the jingle is dead?

According to Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter, reality show producer Mark Burnett is lining up a new advertising jingle reality show for CBS where contestants will be given weekly advertisement-writing assignments that they will then have to perform in front of a studio audience.

Viewer votes will then determine the weekly winner, whose tunes will have the opportunity to be featured live in an actual commercial. According to the HR story, CBS ordered eight episodes of the advertiser-friendly "Jingles" (working title) before the Hollywood writers strike started last November.

While details of the show are still trickling out, SFS thinks that there could be opportunities to extend the concept into broader brand-music partnerships, especially since they've largely eclipsed the impact of jingles these days. Why stop at writing jingles? Contestants could also be tasked with coming up with ideas that show how brands and music can former broader partnerships, the sorts of more engaging projects that we write about here every day.

According to The Hollywood Reporter / Reuters, sources said the series has started casting and pre-production, and CBS is expected to announce a summer launch within the next couple of weeks. We don't have details of who the panel of judges will be, but I'm sure that Burnett would have no shortage of qualified candidates from the ranks of Advertising Age. Our agents will be in touch.

If and when this show airs, expect round-the-clock coverage of it on SFS.