Surprise! Your Favorite Summer Jam Is Really About Chewing Gum

Wrigley's 'Seeds' Chris Brown Track for Later Jingle Campaign

Posted by Mike Tunnicliffe and Charlie Moran in Ad Age 'Songs For Soap' on 07.29.08 @ 04:33 PM

Photo illustration: Charlie Moran

A story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal went behind the scenes on a story first featured in Billboard a couple of weeks back about rapper Ne-Yo, R&B performer Chris Brown and country singer Julianne Hough (a professional contestant on "Dancing With the Stars"), who have all reworked classic Wrigley's jingles for a new campaign. Ne-Yo will rap about Big Red with a reworked "Kiss a little longer" jingle, and Hough has recorded a "twangy" version of Juicy Fruit's "The taste is gonna move ya," but Brown's contribution almost works in reverse.

Last year, after reportedly writing the new Doublemint jingle in 30 minutes, Brown and producer Polow Da Don expanded it to a full-length song and "seeded" it as a single called "Forever," well before the campaign was announced. It was included in his 2007 album "Exclusive," which was re-released last month, and the song shot to the top of the Billboard 100. Only now has Wrigley come out and revealed the intent and funding of the track, whose subtle references to the classic Doublemint jingle ("double your pleasure / double your fun") will be emphasized in an upcoming TV spot.

The deal was put together by Interpublic's Translation Advertising, who commented, "By the time the new jingle came out, it was already seeded properly within popular culture."

While hip-hop artists have plugged into virtually every high-end brand from Cartier to Versace in their song lyrics, this is the first time (to our knowledge) that a branded song like this has been delivered to the public in such a covert fashion. It was well-executed, but we don't necessarily see this as the start of a big new trend. Luckily for Wrigley, the song is a hit, but a feeling of deception may leave a bad taste in some consumers' mouths.

Full disclosure: SFS would have picked t.A.T.u. and dressed them up as the Doublemint twins.

Here's the full song: