September 17, 2002

3:27 PM

Mars Austrailia creates fake band and single to advertise Starbursts. It is the latest marketing idea: create a fictitious group named after your brand and release a cheesy song that gets radio airplay and is sold as a music single to teenagers. The song is Get Your Juices Going, by fictional pop group Starburst. It has secured high-rotation airplay on radio station Nova 96.9 and has had its promotional video featured on Video Hits. The song's lyrics were written by copywriters and the video, in which the group's identity is hidden, was created by television commercial producers. Not once, however, is the pop group linked to Mars.
posted by ncurley (67 comments total)

The real question remains: is the song any good?
posted by Dark Messiah at 3:30 PM on September 17, 2002

welcome to corpworld: where every form of human interaction is advertising and there is no truth, there is no reality.
posted by quonsar at 3:35 PM on September 17, 2002

I don't see how we should be suprised by all this. Anyone remember two years ago when MTV hyped the fact that Britney Spears was making a Pepsi commercial? And that there was going to be (let me try to say this without laughing) an "extended 3-minute version" of the "commercial" aired on TRL? It's been at least ten or eleven years already since Madison Avenue realized that MTV could be used for any kind of subliminal advertising they wanted, be it songs that mention specific clothing styles ("I love girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch") to stylizing products for their coolness factor (sudden surge of Imacs appearing in music videos because of their neon translucent colors)
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 3:49 PM on September 17, 2002

welcome to corpworld: where every form of human interaction is advertising and there is no truth, there is no reality.

I've never heard a more patently ridiculous idea than that, quonsar. It has me so upset, in fact, that I almost had to put down my juicy flame-broiled Whopper™.
posted by Danelope at 3:50 PM on September 17, 2002

Speaking as one who was briefly employed in advertising, to an advertiser, there is no truth and no reality. These are not healthy people,
posted by stet at 3:50 PM on September 17, 2002

welcome to corpworld: where every form of human interaction is advertising and there is no truth, there is no reality.

That's pretty catchy quonsar. You should be in marketing.
posted by mert at 3:52 PM on September 17, 2002

This is horrendous. Somewhere, now, there is a garage band being denied the opportunity to name themselves after Starburst candies ironically!

And as for cross-media promotion ... the Archies were ... ?
posted by dhartung at 3:54 PM on September 17, 2002

(ASIDE: You'd have to be a tremendous frigging moron to not realize that a song called "Get Your Juices Going" by a band called "Starburst", based around the flavors peach, apple, cherry, melon, and strawberry, with the Starburst logo on the CD cover, MAY have a connection to the confectioner in question.)
posted by Danelope at 3:55 PM on September 17, 2002

I'd comment on this, but I'm out the door to join the Navy.
posted by willnot at 4:09 PM on September 17, 2002

"I have noticed that on TV, all of these 'moments' are sponsored by corporations.... Karla said, 'I think that in the future, clocks won't say three o'clock anymore. They'll just get right to the point and call three o'clock, 'Pepsi.'"

-- Microserfs
posted by mathowie at 4:14 PM on September 17, 2002

To consume is to be entertained.
posted by wfrgms at 4:19 PM on September 17, 2002

Let's not forget the granddaddy of all brand bands, the inimitable N'Sync-style boyband, The Meaty Cheesy Boys, who sing harmonies and hawk burgers for Jack in the Box.
posted by Karl at 4:20 PM on September 17, 2002

I must be getting old or something - I have never heard, or heard of, this group or the song. Maybe I shouldn't listen to the classic rock stations so much. Naaaah, what was I thinking?.

... They'll just get right to the point and call three o'clock, 'Pepsi.'"

Unless Coke makes a better offer. Can't have both on the clock face at once, you know.
posted by dg at 4:28 PM on September 17, 2002

I'm starting a band called "The Now & Laters"...
posted by buz46 at 4:28 PM on September 17, 2002

Naysayers! This may be candy music(the second cousin) but haven't you heard?
posted by jonmc at 4:30 PM on September 17, 2002

I think if it's done tongue in cheek (see the Meaty Cheesy Boys, as above) it can be pretty effective.

But I don't really wanna know about this. This is going to give Clear Channel some ideas about new cross-promotional tie ins with advertisers. Then it won't matter what station you listen to, it'll be everywhere. Everywhere!
posted by Salmonberry at 4:31 PM on September 17, 2002

Right! An All Grrrrrl Band named The Mounds!
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:37 PM on September 17, 2002

dg, everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. No need to go off the classic rock dial.
posted by mathowie at 4:41 PM on September 17, 2002

I for one am all for clever marketing ploys. Teenagers should be shaken down for every last dime and filling.
posted by Neologian at 4:46 PM on September 17, 2002

No need to listen to mainstream music media, for that matter.
posted by Dark Messiah at 4:47 PM on September 17, 2002

Teenagers should be shaken down for every last dime and filling

Why? It's their parents that usually foot the bill.
posted by Dark Messiah at 4:48 PM on September 17, 2002

You don't have to listen to the radio to have heard of the group, dg. They're actually playing their "video" on TV as a commercial. I've seen it a couple times. I just wrote it off as a Popstar group I never heard of. It's not an especially catchy or novel song. I think the entire appeal is the commercial/video, where scantilly-clad women representing various "fruit flavors" writhe on top of computer generated Starburst candies.
posted by web-goddess at 4:50 PM on September 17, 2002

...serves them right for breeding in the first place!
posted by Neologian at 4:50 PM on September 17, 2002

I'm starting a band called "The Now & Laters"...

Mine's called the Tootsie Pops--hard and crunchy but with a soft bubblegum core.

No wait that's Green Day....*
posted by jonmc at 4:57 PM on September 17, 2002

*compliment, if you hadn't guessed
posted by jonmc at 4:57 PM on September 17, 2002

Back in the day they called it vanity music.
posted by lilboo at 5:08 PM on September 17, 2002

Sorry, here is a better link.
posted by lilboo at 5:14 PM on September 17, 2002

There's always my personal favorite, "GeeTO Tiger" by "The Tigers", promoting..you guessed it, the Pontiac GTO.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:28 PM on September 17, 2002

I bet it's the Wiggles.
posted by holloway at 5:35 PM on September 17, 2002

...serves them right for breeding in the first place!

Hear that? That's the sound of no one disagreeing with you.
posted by Dark Messiah at 6:21 PM on September 17, 2002

But it's not all bad!

The Health Education Board for Scotland used this kind of marketing for its own less-than-nefarious purposes with Why Do You Keep On Running Boy?, a song about the dangers of smoking, by the prefab pop group "Stinx".

Shockingly, it wasn't all that bad ...
posted by bwerdmuller at 6:30 PM on September 17, 2002

everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974

Too true.

playing their "video" on TV as a commercial

Ah, the problem could be that I don't watch commercials. Yes, I steal free-to-air television shows;-)
posted by dg at 6:32 PM on September 17, 2002

these walls are paper thin and everyone hears every little sound
everyone's a voyeurist, they're watching me watch them watch me right now
they're shaking hands, they're shaking in their shoes, oh lord don't shake me down
everyone wants to move them and half of everyone else moves around
it's been agreed the whole world stinks so no one's taking showers anymore
laugh hard, it's a long ways to the bank
i can't be blamed for nothing anymore
it's been a long time since you've been around
laugh hard, it's a long ways to the bank
tow the line to tax the time you know that you don't owe
i can't be a fool for everyone that i don't know

I think music on t.v and radio is, for the most part, not worth listening to. It's too bad that more artists don't take advantage of a medium as cool as music videos to do something interesting, but I guess when they do it doesn't get played anyway.
posted by The God Complex at 6:40 PM on September 17, 2002

Sometimes the boys in marketing miss an opportunity. We had a local band that was named "Jif and the Choosy Mothers" but some Jif wonk forced them to change their name. Think of the missed marketing opportunities. The band could have pulled off a Guns'n'Roses and released two albums on the same day: "Smooth" and "Crunchy."

The truly sad thing is the band then used the name "The World"...imagine the lead singer intoning every so often: "We are...The World." It was a quick death.

God, 90s music sucked.
posted by ?! at 6:41 PM on September 17, 2002

The Simpsons:

Principal Skinner reads his invitation at school and thinks to himself.
He walks down the hall and looks into Miss Hoover's classroom, where
children sit in front of a TV screen, piled three high and crammed into
desks.

Troy: {[on TV] Now turn to the next problem. If you have three
Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you? You,
the redhead in the Chicago school system?
[a window opens up on the screen to show the girl]}
Girl: {Pepsi?}
Troy: {Partial credit!}
posted by Quinn at 6:43 PM on September 17, 2002

mr_crash_davis:There's always my personal favorite, "GeeTO Tiger" by "The Tigers", promoting..you guessed it, the Pontiac GTO.

ah yes, but it took Kool Keith to combine gto promotion with the claim "I can throw a hundred thousand pound walrus right through the walls".
posted by eddydamascene at 6:46 PM on September 17, 2002

1974 was a very special year.
posted by lilboo at 6:49 PM on September 17, 2002

1974 was a very special year

from that list:
1 : Seasons In The Sun
2 : Billy Don't Be A Hero
they were my favorite songs in 4th grade and I bet I still have those 45s!...I imagine almost thirty years from now someone in Australia will say the same thing about "Get Your Juices Going", but i can feel superior knowing that my songs weren't selling anything (except for Vietnam of course) : >
posted by amberglow at 7:01 PM on September 17, 2002

Along the same lines down this slippery slope... Selling ads in songs: "Lyor's contention is if companies are willing to pay a premium to have their brands in movies, why wouldn't they jump at the chance to be in songs," said a music industry executive, who spoke under condition of anonymity.
posted by thunder at 7:05 PM on September 17, 2002

Damn you amberglow, now I have "Billy, don't be a hero" running through my head and can't get rid of it. Was one of my favourites, too.
posted by dg at 7:26 PM on September 17, 2002

Just don't be a fool with your life, dg.
posted by jonmc at 7:52 PM on September 17, 2002

For what it's worth, the "Get Your Juices Going" sounds computer generated. It sounds like tooth decay.
posted by emptyage at 7:57 PM on September 17, 2002

Seems like half the ads containing music I see on TV these days have MTV-style title/artist/etc. text info in the bottom left corner. If Harrah's Casino can do it, why not Starburst?
(That was sarcasm.)
posted by me3dia at 8:00 PM on September 17, 2002

OK, jonmc, but don't expect me to come back and make you my wife :-)
posted by dg at 9:00 PM on September 17, 2002

but, but we skinned our hearts and skinned our knees, ...what about the joy, the fun, the seaons in the....oh never mind
posted by jonmc at 9:03 PM on September 17, 2002

Get Your Juices Going, by Starburst.

(WMA link)
posted by emptyage at 9:42 PM on September 17, 2002

I'm shocked that nobody has brought up "Mars Bars" by The Undertones. Blatant product placement at it's best.
posted by tpoh.org at 10:00 PM on September 17, 2002

"There's glucose for energy,
Caramel for strength,
The chocolate's only there
To keep it the right length!"
posted by tpoh.org at 10:02 PM on September 17, 2002

Those are all nothing compared to the soothing tones of PushTheGreenButton, the Official Band of Windows XP Media Center Edition.

You may wish to enjoy the soothing sounds of "Online".
posted by anildash at 11:28 PM on September 17, 2002

Now turn to the next problem. If you have three
Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you?

Hmm... I may have to break out the Giant Snapple Abacus for this one.
posted by Silune at 11:41 PM on September 17, 2002

I'd like to teach the world to sing...
I'd like to buy the world a Coke...
posted by peachwood at 2:02 AM on September 18, 2002

Sometimes the boys in marketing miss an opportunity. We had a local band that was named "Jif and the Choosy Mothers" but some Jif wonk forced them to change their name. Think of the missed marketing opportunities. The band could have pulled off a Guns'n'Roses and released two albums on the same day: "Smooth" and "Crunchy."

This got me thinking hard until I remembered that 'Jif' in the US is peanut butter. Here in the UK it's toilet cleaner...altho' I doubt if it'll be too long before the next generation toilet cleaners come in smooth & crunchy.

Of course I approve of all this 'Starburst' bollocks because it will surely accelerate the death of modern consumer culture and we all know that the first people to die out where we're all having to scrabble around & live off the land will be the marketing & advertising gonks.

;-)
posted by i_cola at 2:46 AM on September 18, 2002

Manufactured pop for commercial gain? It would never have happened in the good old days...
posted by monkey closet at 3:23 AM on September 18, 2002

At least this is more overt than the Monkees and the Partridge Family.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:31 AM on September 18, 2002

Hasn't Jif been changed to cif now?

And starburst used to be opal fruits over here in the uk.
What could an ad man do with opal fruits to avoid the gay associations?
posted by dprs75 at 5:13 AM on September 18, 2002

What could an ad man do with opal fruits to avoid the gay associations?

Why avoid them? We're a distinct marketing group now, so cater to us. (although people could say that boy bands already are, but ugh!)

sorry dg--but if it makes you feel any better: after I posted, I went to sleep and dreamt of marching down main street and going off to war and and lying on a deathbed--and everything was misty and seventies-looking...
posted by amberglow at 5:28 AM on September 18, 2002

Starburst/Opal fruits have gay associations?
posted by dash_slot- at 5:58 AM on September 18, 2002

tpoh.org - Thanks for giving me a gratuitous opportunity to reminisce about my favourite band from my teen years...as with so much of what they did (promoting their 2nd album with a lobster motif, for example), The 'ommage to Mars Bars was done by The Undertones with all collective tongues sticking in cheeks. See 'My Perfect Cousin':
"His mother bought him a synthesizer,
Brought the Human League into advise her,
Now he's making lots of noise,
Playing around with the Art School boys..."

Memories of standing at the back of the Oxford New Theatre (now, The Apollo), watching a shirtless Feargal Sharkey chucking handfuls of the bars into the moshpit but being to far away to join in...mind you, he was so dangerously thin back then, he could have used a few to build himself up!

Me and John Peel, we suffered when they broke up...but at least we had each other
posted by dash_slot- at 6:23 AM on September 18, 2002

I've always been surprised that more struggling young bands didn't follow the Sigue Sigue Sputnik model -- they had commericals between the songs on their first album (I remember two of them: one for "Studio Line by L'Oreal" and one for "ID Magazine").
posted by Reggie452 at 7:26 AM on September 18, 2002

Yes, and where did Sigue Sigue Sputnik end up?

Exactly.
posted by witchstone at 7:45 AM on September 18, 2002

Welcome to Der Weinerschnitzel!

(Misspelling courtesy of The Descendents)
posted by languagehat at 7:51 AM on September 18, 2002

What self-respecting house music producer would have remixed that piece of garbage? Wait, don't answer that.
In the words of Bill Hicks: "If any of you here are in marketing or advertising...... kill yourself.
Also... Sigue Sigue Sputnik
posted by Rattmouth at 8:50 AM on September 18, 2002

Did we learn nothing from the Josie and the Pussycats movie?
posted by keli at 9:02 AM on September 18, 2002

Jeez, I almost forgot: Advertising Age had an article recently on marketers examining ways to insert more products into pop music, e.g. Busta Rhymes's ode to Corvoissier. So I guess we can expect much, much more of this in the future.
posted by me3dia at 9:06 AM on September 18, 2002

... the first people to die out where we're all having to scrabble around & live off the land will be the marketing & advertising gonks.

You obviously have not read "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", i_cola.
posted by dg at 4:03 PM on September 18, 2002

dg: Ya mean 'Life, the Universe & Everything'? Which is fiction & I'm a talkin' reality. Possibly. Or something.
posted by i_cola at 10:45 AM on September 19, 2002

Fiction? What do you mean? Life, the Universe & Everything was maybe dramatised a bit, but wasn't it based on real occurrences, as with all four five parts of the trilogy? Personally, I think that the whole story explains a lot about our world, but that's just me.
posted by dg at 3:59 PM on September 19, 2002