:: adgruntie :: More music and advertising

+ It looks like McD's isn't the only one jumping on the music/advertising bandwagon. The Chicago Tribune reports that "Collective Soul is joining up with Chicago-based advertising agency Leo Burnett USA as part of its new "artists-in-residence" program. Leo Burnett, which represents big name clients such as McDonald's, Nintendo, Disney and Kellogg, started the program last week with Collective Soul and plans to bring in musicians and producers on a regular basis to work with the agency's creative teams on new ideas."

Cheryl Berman, chairman and chief creative officer of Leo Burnett USA, conceived the project as a way to establish direct relationships with musicians and explore new options for adding music to advertisements.

It's getting harder for Leo Burnett and other advertisers to capture consumers' attention when they have to compete with TiVos, iPods and other entertainment-on-demand devices that put consumers in charge. Good music can help cut through the clutter, Berman said.

"It's not OK to do mediocre ideas and elevator music," Berman said. "They'll tune you out."

With the artists-in-residence program, Berman hopes collaborations between musicians and ad people will lead to finding that perfect music for an ad. That could mean using existing songs or getting musicians to write something new for commercials.

"I think we're done with the days of jingles to sell you something," Berman said.

I didn't even know Collective Soul was still out there. heh.