Popular Music in Ads

Effects of Popular Music in Advertising

on Attention and IVIemory

DAVID ALLAN

Saint Joseph's

University

[email protected]

This study examines the effects of popuiar music in advertising to determine both the

theoreticai (the effect of popular music on the processing of advertising messages)

and practicai (the design of more effective advertisements using popuiar music)

impiications. An experiment is reported that tested the effects of three integrations of

popuiar music in advertising: originai iyrics, aitered iyrics, and instrumentais (plus a

controi treatment with no music) on attention and memory. The results indicated that

song vocais, either originai or altered, are more effective stimuii of advertising effects

than instrumentais or no popuiar music.

INTRODUCTION

Whether it is The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up"or The Vines' "Ride," popular music in advertis-ing is, well, popular. "The syncing of both classicand new songs into advertising campaigns haskept up its torrid pace and shows no sign ofabating," said Mark Fried, president of Spirit Mu-sic Group (Bessman, 2003). And although the in-tegration of popular music and advertising hasbeen called everything from "selling out" (Burns,1996; Lubrano, 2004; Michaels, 2002) to the "per-fect marriage of commerce and art" {Billboard,

2003), the trend continues. "In the past five yearsadvertisers have been unrelenting in their appro-priation of popular music to get the attention ofyouth, and there's no sign of the trend abating"(Shea, 2004, p. 16).

Advertisers use popular music in various waysto involve, engage, and ultimately persuade thepotential consumer to purchase their product orservice. Whether as foreground or background,music is integrated into commercials in one ofseveral ways. Music is sometimes written, scored,and recorded for advertising certain productsor services. In other cases, the less-expensive"needledrop" ("music that is prefabricated, multi-purpose, highly conventional and used as an in-expensive substitute for original music" [Scott,

434 DF flDOERTISIIlG RESEflRCH December 2 0 0 6

1990, p. 223]) or stock music ("prerecorded musicthat can be rented or bought" [Russell and Lane,1999, p. 549]) is used. In still other instances,advertisers alter and adapt already or once-popular songs to their specific products or ser-vices (e.g., an eBay commercial in which the wordsof the Frank Sinatra hit "My Way" are changed to"eBay"). Finally, through direct licensing, adver-tisers place popular music, in its original vocal orinstrumental form, right into the commercials tocreate an association between the product or ser-vice and the song.

This study attempts to extend the little researchon the integration of popular music in advertisingby testing the role of personal significance on theeffects of attention and memory. It will experimen-tally compare three advertising treatments, eachusing popular music in one of three differentconditions: advertising using an original popularmusic vocal (a commercial that uses popular songvocals integrated with some type of sponsor iden-tification, slogan, and/or attributes); advertisingusing an altered popular music vocal (a commer-cial that replaces original popular song vocalswith altered vocals containing sponsor identifica-tion, slogans, and/or attributes); and advertisingusing an original popular music instrumental (acommercial that uses the instrumental of an original

DOI: 10.2501/S0021849906060491

POPULAR MUSIC IN ADVERTISING

popular song integrated with some type

of sponsor identification, slogan, and/or

attributes); plus a control treatment of ad-

vertising not using any music (a commer-

cial without any music or jingle). More

specifically, by comparing the observa-

tions of individuals exposed to each of

these experimental conditions, this re-

search attempts to determine which tech-

nique facilitates the highest level of

attention to the brand and the strongest

memory for the brand.

POPULAR MUSIC AND ADVERTISING

EFFECTS

Popular music is arguably one of the mostpolarizing forms of mass communication.In this research "popular music" is de-fined as "well-liked and well-favoured"(Middleton, 1990) music for "ordinary peo-ple" (Shuker, 1994) that has wide massmedia exposure, but usually only for afixed period of time. Its impact is eitheroverstated or understated. Yet, it is animportant part of both a thriving culturaland entertainment environment. To someit is a business and to others it is a way oflife. While many would argue its culturalcontribution to society (Adorno, 1941;Horkheimer and Adorno, 1944; Peatman,1944), few would argue its potential toimpact and to influence individuals.

Advertising inspires ambivalence equalto that of popular music. Advertising isdefined as "the paid, nonpersonal com-munication of information about prod-ucts or ideas by an identified sponsorthrough the mass media in an effort topersuade or influence behavior" (Bovee,Thill, Dovel, and Wood, 1995, p. 4). Iron-ically, communication theorist MarshallMcLuhan called it "the greatest art formof the twentieth century" (Andrews, 1987,p. 5). But advertising pioneer David Ogilvysaid he did not regard it as an art formbut as "a medium of information" (Ogilvy,1983, p. 7). Both McLuhan and Ogilvy

would agree that advertising is every-where throughout society. Whether youagree it cultivates or contaminates, mir-rors or manipulates that society, you can-not avoid it.

While there is a considerable amount ofdisagreement on the societal implicationsof the practice of using popular music inadvertising, most agree on its potential.Hecker (1984), in a limited research study,concluded that "music may well be thesingle most stimulating component of ad-vertising" (p. 3) and "when used appro-priately, is the catalyst of advertising. Itaugments pictures and colors words, andoften adds a form of energy availablethrough no other source" (p. 7). Dunbar(1990) agreed that music is the perfectvehicle to be integrated with advertisingto deliver a message. The potential ofpopular music to be "a stimulating com-ponent" and "the perfect vehicle" is adirect reflection on the ability of popularmusic to get people more involved inadvertising. The key is involvement (de-fined as "the number of conscious bridg-ing experiences, connections, or personalreferences per minute that a viewer makesbetween his or her own life and a stimu-lus" [Krugman, 1965, p. 356]) because it"seems to mediate both the acquisitionand processing of information through ac-tivating a heightened state of arousaland/or greater cognitive activity in aninteraction between an individual and astimulus" (Salmon, 1986, p. 264). Involve-ment as it generally relates to advertisinghas been well documented (Zaichkowsky,1994). And although involvement as aresult of relevance has also been re-searched (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986),relevance may be too unemotional to ad-equately describe the reaction to popularmusic in advertising. Something can berelevant and not meaningful or signifi-cant. This study will observe the effect ofpersonal significance defined as the de-

gree of emotional meaning the song or

the artist has for the individual. The effect

of personal significance will be observed

in particular with attention to and mem-

ory of advertising and popular music.

Attention

The first in the hierarchy of advertisingeffects is attention. Anderson (1991, p. 4)defined attention as "a set of overt and co-vert perceptual and orienting processes bymeans of which information becomes avail-able to central information-processingactivities. Attention thus serves to channelsome information to be processed by cen-tral cognitive functions, whereas other in-formation is excluded." If the advertisingdoes not get attention then the likelihoodthat it will be remembered greatly dimin-ishes. Kahneman (1973) argued that "themain function of the term 'attention' is toprovide a label for some of the internalmechanisms that determine the signifi-cance [not just the relevance] of stimuli andthereby make it impossible to predict be-havior by stimulus considerations alone"(p. 2). This suggests that popular music inan advertisement must not just be relevantto the individual but to also have some typeof significance. Kahneman also stressed thatattehtion enables a person to categorize andrecognize stimuli. Thus, attention to an ad-vertisement caused by the presence of sig-nificant popular music could result insuccessful categorization and recognitionof the information facilitating the other ad-vertising effects. Geiger and Newhagen(1993, p. 44) said that this process was ei-ther a kind of controlled effort dictated bythe individual processor or an automaticeffort dictated by the information.

IVIemory

After an advertisement gets the attentionof the consumer, memory is the next im-portant step in the "sequential causalchain" (Thorson, Chi, and Leavitt, 1992).

December 2 0 0 6 JOOIIllIlL OF IIOUERTISIOG RESEHBCH 4 3 5


Hering, in a lecture to the Vienna Acad-

emy of Sciences in 1870, defined memory

as "the collection of the countless phenom-

ena of our existence into a single whole"

(Hering, 1920, p. 75). While this definition

may appear to be a bit dated, it lends

itself well to this study. For the purposes

of this study, an information-processing

theory of memory as a system of inter-

related components developed by Atkin-

son and Shiffrin (1968) is used. Research

suggests that music stimulates memories

for significant life events (Baumgartner,

1992). This type of memory, called epi-

sodic memories, stores information about

temporally dated episodes or events, and

temporal spatial relations among these

events seem most applicable (Tulving,

1972). It is the episodic memories that

may affect the degree of personal signifi-

cance for popular music because these

memories are "autobiographical, per-

sonal, and sensitive to the effects of con-

text" (Best, 1989, p. 217).

Effects of music on attention and memory.

The idea that attention and memory canbe enhanced by music has been researched(Adorno, 1941, 1976; Rubin, 1977; Wal-lace, 1994). Adorno (1941) was one of thefirst to analyze popular music and recog-nition. While it was very apparent thatAdorno did not respect popular music, hedid acknowledge its ability to get atten-tion and be remembered. Rubin (1977)found that recall of information is im-proved when cued with a well-knownsong ("The Star-Spangled Banner"). Wal-lace (1994) determined that the melody ofa song can facilitate recall by providing aframework for encoding and retrieving atext.

It has been observed that music canenhance attention and recall (Rubin, 1977;Wallace, 1994), but can it enhance theattention and recall of advertising? Kellaris,Cox, and Cox (1993) suggested that music

can exert an interactive influence on ad-vertising processing: music's "attention-gaining value" (p. 115). Other studies ofpopular music in advertising suggestedthat a series of potential effects on atten-tion and memory can result from popularmusic integrated in advertising (Olsen,1995; Park and Young, 1986; Roehm, 2001).Furthermore, past research suggests thatsome integrations may be more effectivethan others, specifically instrumentaismore than vocals (Roehm, 2001), silencemore than instrumentais (Olsen, 1995), andoriginal lyrics more than altered lyrics(Crowder, Serafine, and Repp, 1990; Se-rafine, Crowder, and Repp, 1984; Serafine,Davidson, Crowder, and Repp, 1986). Thesestudies of popular music integrated inadvertising provide the starting point forthis study. By testing, extending, and ex-panding the advertising research that hasbeen completed with respect to the use ofpopular music versus silence (Olsen, 1995),the use of popular music instrumentaisversus vocals (Roehm, 2001; Wallace, 1991,1994), and the use of adapted or alteredlyrics with original melodies (Crowder,Serafine, and Repp, 1990; Serafine, Crow-der, and Repp, 1984; Serafine, Davidson,Crowder, and Repp, 1986), this study willobserve the potential of popular musicwhen personally significant (Fiske, 1992)and involving (Krugn^an, 1965) to affectattention and memory. To do this, theresponses of individuals to three differenttreatments of popular music in commer-cials (original vocals, altered vocals, andinstrumentais) and one without any pop-ular music are analyzed.

Hypotheses and research questions

Kellaris, Cox, and Cox (1993) said thatpopular music has "attention-gainingvalue" (p. 115). Petty and Cacioppo (1986)said that information with high personalrelevance would get a high degree of at-tention resulting in higher involvement

and follow a central route to persuasion

(more controlled), and information with

low personal relevance would follow a

peripheral route to persuasion (more au-

tomatic). But Kahneman (1973) said that

attention describes some internal mecha-

nisms that determine the significance not

the relevance of stimuli. This suggests

that popular music with high or low per-

sonal significance will lead to greater or

lesser attention to the integrated advertis-

ing messages; popular music vocals will

be more attention-getting than other treat-

ments; and original popular vocals with

high personal significance will be the most

effective at getting the attention of the

individual. This leads to the following

two hypotheses and one research question:

HIA: Advertising with popular mu-sic that has high personal sig-nificance for the listener willlead to greater attention to the

advertisement than advertisingwith popular music that haslow personal significance.

HIB: Advertising with original pop-ular music vocals will lead togreater attention to the advertise-

ment (brand) than advertisingusing altered popular musicvocals, original popular musicinstrumentais, or not using pop-ular music.

RQl: How will popular music, per-sonal significance, and advertis-ing treatment interact to affectattention to the advertisement?

Rubin (1977) and Wallace (1994) foundthat music stimulated not only attentionbut recall. The question then is does pop-ular music in advertising also stimulatememory for advertising messages? Whattype of treatment of popular music (orig-inal vocal, instrumental, or altered vocal)

4 3 6 JDURIIHL or HDUERTISinG RESERRCH December 2 0 0 6


is most effective at stimulating memory?

What is the effect of personal significance,

if any? And do treatment and personal

significance interact? These questions lead

to the following two hypotheses and one

research question:

H2A: Advertising with popular mu-sic that has high personal sig-nificance for the listener willlead to greater memory for the

brand than advertising with pop-ular music that has low per-sonal significance.

H2B: Advertising with original pop-ular music vocals will lead togreater memory for the brand than

advertising using altered popu-lar music vocals, original pop-ular music instrumentais, or notusing popular music.

RQ2: How will popular music, per-sonal significance, and advertis-ing treatment interact to affectmemory for the brand!

METHOD

A pilot test was conducted (Philadelphia)to select the popular music and brands tobe used in this experiment similar to thosepilot tests conducted in past researchprojects (Alpert and Alpert, 1990; Brookerand Wheatley, 1994; Gorn, 1982; Kellarisand Cox, 1989; Macinnis and Park, 1991).In two parts of the pilot test, a group ofindividuals in the target demographic forTop 40 radio (18-24), which representsthe most frequent listeners to this radioformat (Arbitron, 2002), evaluated musicand brands. In the first part of the pilottest, the participants were asked to listento 7-10 second "hooks" from 100 differentpopular hit songs from Billboard maga-zine's Top 100 most-played Top 40 (radio)songs of 2002. In the second part of thepilot test, the individuals were given the

Top 100 brands randomized from Business-

Week magazine (Ueland, 2002) and askedto rank them for likeability of the brand.In both tests the participants were askedto rate the music and the brands on a10-point semantic differential scale. Thescale measured for likeability ranging from1 = "dislike a lot" to 10 = "like a lot." Thetesting was done by a professional radioresearch company using electronic, hand-held meters used by many radio stationsto gather responses to music, marketing,and morning shows.

Stimulus materials

Four of the top 10 pilot-tested songs werechosen and included the most popularartists from a variety of genres of music(i.e., pop, rock, hip hop, etc.). Each ofthese songs was matched with one of thetop four pilot-tested brands. Sixteen dif-ferent 30-second radio advertisements werewritten and created by industry profes-sionals integrating the matched songs andbrands into treatments embedded in theradio advertisements (Kellaris and Man-tel, 1996). The copy was controlled acrossadvertisements. The same male and fe-male announcers were used for all of thecommercials to avoid a spokesperson bias(Wheatley and Brooker, 1994). The use ofprofessional radio, production, and adver-tising agencies in addition to being appro-priate is consistent with past research(Brooker and Wheatley, 1994; Macinnisand Park, 1991; Roehm, 2001). Each au-diotape had one of each of the fourdifferent treatments (advertising using orig-inal popular music vocal, altered popularmusic vocal, original popular music in-strumental, and no music) with four dif-ferent brands (Kodak, Ikea, Heinz, andSony) and four different popular songs(Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle," NoDoubt's "Hey Baby," Nelly's "Hot inHerre," and Eminem's "Without Me") ran-domly ordered to control for primacy and

recency effects. These advertisements wereeach 30 seconds in length with four ad-vertisements included on each tape. Eachof the four commercial sets was then placedlike a normal radio commercial break inbetween two segments of a Top 40 station(Nashville). Radio was chosen as the me-dium because "it is a commercially impor-tant and emotionally evocative medium"(Wheatley and Brooker, 1994, p. 190). Ithas been suggested that radio also has"the ability to connect with people emo-tionally" and that radio advertisementsare more "personally relevant" (RAEL,2004, p. 6). Top 40 programming has beenfound to be more "interesting and involv-ing" (Bickart, 1984). In 1990, Sullivan addedthat "the more involving music formats[like Top 40] produce more strongly pos-itive advertising effects than do less highlyinvolving music formats" (Sullivan, 1990,p. 107).

Participants

One hundred and eleven participants inthe target demo for Top 40 radio (18-24)volunteered to participate in the study(Philadelphia). This resulted in approxi-mately equal numbers for each experimen-tal condition. Subsequent analysis indicatedno major differences existed among treat-ment groups in terms of demographiccharacteristics. Fifty-two percent of thesubjects were female and 48 percent weremale. Fifty-eight percent of the subjectswere white, 27 percent were African-American, 6 percent were Asian, and 7percent defined themselves as other.

Procedure

Participants were randomly assigned tohear one of the four tapes. After listeningto the tape each group was asked to com-plete a questionnaire that began with stan-dard radio research questions regardinglikeability and intent to listen to the radiostation they heard on the tape. Then they

December 2 0 0 6 JOUROflL OF flDUERTISIIlG RESEflflCH 4 3 7


were asked to recall (unaided) and list PRELIMINARY ANALYSES Memory for the brand was measured

both the brands and the songs they could Analyses were performed to determine by requesting "Please write down all the

recall from the commercials on the tape. the familiarity of the radio station, music, brands in the commercials" dichoto-

Finally, with the aid of knowing each of artists, and brands. The participants were mously ("yes" or "no"). The results of

the four brands individually they were asked if the radio station was familiar those that recalled the brand {n = 111)

asked to answer questions related to at- ("yes" or "no") with 95 percent scoring it were: Kodak, 41 percent; Ikea, 46 percent;

tention and memory. unfamiliar, a condition that was predeter- Heinz, 60 percent; and Sony, 52 percent.

mined to be important to not create a bias

Design and measures due to prior experience. The artists, songs. Hypothesis testing

This was a true experimental mixed de- and brands were tested for familiarity The hypothesis testing was conducted

sign with a 2 (high/low personal signifi- using a 7-point (1 = "not familiar" to 7 = using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to

cance) X 4 (advertising using original "very familiar") semantic differential scale. determine the main and interaction ef-

popular song vocal, altered popular song The results indicated that all were highly fects of popular music (song/artist), per-

vocal, original popular song instrumen- familiar. sonal significance (high/low), and the four

tal, no popular music) X 2 (male/female) The songs and artists were checked for advertising treatments (original popular

factorial design. The design had two personal significance using a 7-point se- music vocal, original popular music in-

between-subjects factors (personal signif- mantic differential scale (1 = "not signifi- strumental, altered popular music vocal,

icance and gender) and one within-subject cant" to 7 = "very significant"). The and without popular music) on the de-

factor with four levels (advertising using distribution of the significance scores for pendent variables of attention to tiie adver-

original popular song vocals, advertising song and artist for each subject was then tisement (brand) and memory for the brand.

using altered popular song vocals, adver- split into low and high personal signifi- In addition, gender was added as an ad-

tising using original popular song instru- cance at the mean (Table 1). Attention to ditional independent variable (IV). Fi-

mental, and advertising using no music). the advertisement was measured by ask- nally, because brand was not a theoretically

ing "Did the (brand) commercial get your interesting variable, additional repeated

Variables. The primary independent vari- attention?" dichotomously ("yes" or "no"). measures analyses were concluded using

ables were personal significance (high/ The results of those that answered yes the Huynh-Feldt method with the data

low) of popular music and advertising were: Kodak, 29 percent (w = 106); Ikea, collapsed across brands to compare adver-

treatment (advertising using original pop- 46 percent (w = 110); Heinz, 42 percent tising treatments, including gender. The

ular song vocals, advertising using al- (n = 111); and Sony, 40 percent (n = 106). data could not be collapsed across brands

tered popular song vocals, advertising

using original popular song instrumental,

and advertising using no music). Per- TABLE 1

sonal significance was measured by ask- r-> i r^- -.c- ^ r> • . .

. ,.^^ , , ^ Personal Significance of Songs and Artistsmg How would you rate the music m

this commercial?" using a 7-point seman- (1 = "not Significant" to 7 = "very Significant")tic differential scale (1 = "not significant"

to 7 = "very significant"). Gender (male/

female) analyses were also performed. The .".I,' . ..'y!i! .'®" ,3,-.57 51 1.65dependent variables were attention to the Jimmy Eat World 3.79 43 1.73advertisement and memory for the brand. ..^ Babv" 3 09 65

Attention to the advertisement was mea-, , , . „„. , ., „ ,, No Doubt 3.64 53 1.73

sured by askmg Did the (brand) commer- r::...^.

eial get your attention?" dichotomously ".\}9}:.]f}.![]^!.'''.9..[ ,3-83 65 1.94

("yes" or "no"). Memory for the brand was NeHy 4 H 55 199

measured by asking "Please w rite down"Without Me" 3.75 51 1.90

all the brands in the commercials" dichot-omously ("yes" or "no"). Erninem 4.35 46 1.98

4 3 8 JOUROflL or RDUERTISmO RESERRCH December 2 0 0 6


to compare levels of personal significance

because each brand was combined with

each song and its corresponding personal

significance levels.

would lead to greater attention to the instrumental advertising treatment (Ms =

advertisement than advertising with al- 1.45 > 1.19, p < .001); and the altered

tered vocals, instrumentais, or no popular vocal treatment resulted in significantly

music. Main effects were observed for ad- greater attention to the advertisement than

vertising treatment with three of the four the instrumental advertising treatment

Attention to the advertisement. Hypoth- brands, Kodak (F(3,102) = 6.03, p < .001), (Ms = 1.65 > 1.19, p < .001) and the

esis HIA predicted that advertising with Ikea (F(3, 106) = 6.52, p < .001), and advertising treatment with no music (Ms =

popular music that has high personal sig- Heinz (F(3, 107) = 11.86, p < .001) show- 1.65 > 1.28, p < .001). There were no

nificance would lead to greater attention ing significant effects, and results for gender interaction effects,

to the advertisement (brand) than adver- Sony approaching statistical significance In answer to Research Question RQl

tising with popular music that has low (F(3, 102) = 2.426, p < .07). The Bonfer- concerning how popular music, personal

significance. This was supported when roni method for paired comparisons significance, and advertising treatment will

the song had high personal significance showed that the original vocal and interact to affect attention to the advertise-

for the treatments of Kodak with "The altered vocal versions resulted in signifi- ment, there was a significant interaction

Middle" (M(high) = 1.70, M(iow) = 1-39; cantly greater attention to the advertise- between artist personal significance and

F(l, 49) = 5.05, p < .03) and Ikea with ment than the no music and instrumental advertising treatment, but only for Jimmy

"Hey Baby" (M(high) = 1.56, M(iow) = 1-21; versions (Table 2). In the separate analy- Eat World (F(3, 35) = 3.36, p < .03), with

F(l, 63) = 9.01, p < .004), but not sup- ses for gender, no significant differences the original vocal version testing better

ported for the others, although the result were observed. In the repeated measures when the artist was highly significant,

for Heinz with "Hot in Herre" approached analysis of the attention to the advertise- and the altered vocal version testing bet-

statistical significance (M(high) = 1.48, ment across brands, a significant main ter when the artist was low in significance.

M(iow) = 1.26; F(l, 63) = 3.36, p < .07). effect was observed for advertising treat-

This was also supported when the artist ment (F(3, 288) = 17.02, p < .001). The Memory for the brand. Hypothesis H2A

was high in personal significance for No Bonferroni method for paired compari- predicted that advertising with popular

Doubt (M(high) = 1.52, M(iow) = 1.20; sons indicated that the original vocal treat- music that has high personal significance

F(l, 51) = 6.52, p < .01), Nelly (M(high) = ment resulted in significantly greater would lead to greater memory for the

1.44, M(iow) = 1.15; F(l, 54) = 5.26, p < attention to the advertisement than the brand than advertising with popular

.026), and Eminem (M(high) = 1.74, M(iow) =

1.13; F(l, 44) = 26.62, p < .001) but not for

Jimmy Eat World (F(l, 41) = 0.850, p <

362) TABLE 2In separate analyses for gender, there Paired Comparisons of Advertising Treatment on Attention

was a significant interaction for "Without ^ ^ ^ ^ Advertisement

Me" (F(l, 47) = 3.92, p < .05), with fe- '

males reporting greater attention to the Brand Advertising Treatment Ms p

brand than males when the song was ,, . , ..^ ., , M • ^ ,-^ ^ ^r^ ^,-^ Kodak Altered vocal > No music 1.52 > 1.20 .05

high in personal significance and maleshaving greater attention to the brand when Altered vocal > Instrumental 1^52 >, l;04 .001low in personal significance; and Jimmy Ikea Altered vocal > No music 1.79 > 1.36 .005

Eat World (F(l, 39) = 7.39, p < .01), with l e e j ôâl > Original vocal 1.79 > 1.44 .05males having greater attention to the brand

Altered vocal > Instrumental 1.79 > 1.28 .001when the artist was high m personal sig-nificance and females having greater at- Heinz 9.".^\'}.^\.^.°9^}.^..!^.°..'!^}^.^}.^. ^:^.I.^..h'^^. :.°^

tention to the brand when low in personal P/'g'âl ôcal > Instrumental 1.57 > 1.21 .01

significance. Altered vocal > No music 1.77 > 1.21 .001Hypothesis HIB predicted that adver-

tising with original popular music vocals Altered vocal > Instrumental 1,77 > 1.18 .001

D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6 JOUROHL OF OOUERTISIOG OESEORCH 4 3 9


music that has low personal significance. TABLE 3

This was supported for song (M^^gh) = pgjred Comparisons Of Advertising Treatment on Memory0.83, M(iow, = 0.50; F ( l , 49) = 6.83, P < . . + , . , p .

.012) a n d a r t i s t (M(high) = 0.87, M ^ , , „ , = TO tne BranO

0.43; F{1, 44) = 11.58, p < .001) for Sony g^^^, Advertising Treatment Ms pbut not for the other three brands. In the

separate analyses conducted for gender, ^^^'^ 0^! '"^!. vocal > Instrumental 0.61 > 0.14 .002

an interaction was observed for "Hot in Altered vocal > Instrumental 0.55 > 0.14 .007

Herre" for Heinz (f (1, 61) = 3.88, p < \y^^ Altered vocal > No music 0.82 > 0.29 .001.053) for Heinz with males showing greater

Altered vocal > Original vocal 0.82 > 0.46 .033memory tor the brand than females whenthe song was highly significant and fe- Heinz Altered .v.°.c.a!.>..No music 9;.81.>.0:34 .001males showing greater memory for the Altered vocal > Original vocal 0.81 > 0.32 .001brand when the song was low in sisnifi- A I 4 . . J i i ^ • , ^ ^ . , ^ . , ^

^ ° Altered vocal > Instrumental 0.81 > 0.18 .001cance. An interaction was also observedfor both song (f (1, 47) = 4.18, p < .046)and artist (f (1, 39) = 4.53, p < .04) forKodak ("The Middle" by Jimmy Eat cantly greater memory for the brand than of attention and memory than advertisingWorld) again with males showing greater the advertising treatment with no music without popular music, not only for itsmemory for the brand than females when {Ms = 0.663 > 0.362, p < .001) and the attention-gaining value but also for itshighly significant and females showing instrumental advertising treatment (Ms = stimulation of memory. Popular music withgreater memory for the brand when low 0.663 > 0.312, p < .001). No significant vocals was a more effective stimulus ofin significance. interaction effects were observed for gen- attention and memory than popular mu-

Hypothesis H2B predicted that adver- der. In answer to Research Question RQ2, sic without vocals (instrumentais). Popu-tising with original popular music vocals no interaction was observed. lar music with original vocals was a morewould lead to greater memory for the effective stimulus of attention and mem-brand than advertising with altered vo- DiSCUSSiON ory when high in personal significancecals, instrumentais, or no popular music. This research provided valuable insight and popular music with altered vocalsMain effects for advertising treatment were into popular music in general, and adver- was a more effective stimulus of attentionobserved for Kodak (F(3, 107) = 5.81, p < tising with popular music in particular. and memory when low in personal sig-.001), Ikea (f (3, 107) = 6.50, p < .001), Popular music was observed to be a nificance. From the results, it appearedand Heinz (F(3, 107) = 10.20, p < .001). "blending of personal, social, and cultural that popular music "may well be the sin-The Bonferroni method for paired com- significance" as Lull (1992, p. 1) de- gle most stimulating component of adver-parisons indicated that the original vocal scribed. The personal significance and tising" (Hecker, 1984, p. 3), or at the veryand especially the altered vocal treat- meaning that popular music had for the least it "makes you watch or listen in aments resulted in significantly greater participants appeared to originate from different way" (Dunbar, 1990, p. 198).memory for the brand than the other ad- both the original lyrics and the artists asvertising treatments (Table 3). Separate the cultural studies of Fiske (1992) and Attentionanalyses were conducted for gender with Grossberg (1992) suggested it would. Each Popular music clearly has "attention-no interactions observed. song and artist used in this study was gaining value" (Kellaris, Cox, and Cox,

In the repeated measures analysis of shown to have higher personal signifi- 1993) for a brand name associated with it.the memory for the brand across brands, cance to some and lower personal signif- The study of advertisement (brand) anda significant main effect was observed for icance to others contrary to Adomo's (1941) song attention effects indicated that per-advertising treatment (F(3, 273) = 10.09, theory that popular music undermines au- sonal significance of the music and thep < .001). The Bonferroni method for tonomy and individual judgment. artist does influence the effect of popularpaired comparisons indicated that the al- Advertising with popular music was music as a stimulus. The individuals intered vocal treatment resulted in signifi- observed to be a more effective stimulus this experiment processed songs and artists

4 4 0 JOOBimL Df IIOUERTISIIIG RESEflRCH December 2 0 0 6


they considered high in personal signifi-cance differently from those that were lowin significance. The results of the pairedcomparison tests showed that the partici-pants were also more attentive to adver-tisements with songs with vocals (originalor altered) than songs without vocals (in-strumental or without music), suggestingthat vocals are important (but not neces-sarily just the original ones). A vocal(not simply a voice because all of theadvertising versions contained the sameannouncer voice-over with the same ad-vertising message), either original or al-tered, appears to be a key considerationin processing. Finally, because interactionsbetween significant popular music or art-ists and advertising treatments for thisdependent variable were only shown inone of the experimental treatments (Kodakwith Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle"), itis impossible to conclude anything defin-itive about the relationship between thepersonal significance of popular music andthe advertising treatment. It is interesting,however, and extremely relevant to notethe results and implications of this inter-action. In this case, when the artist wassignificant, the original vocal led to greaterbrand attention, but when the artist wasnot significant, the altered vocal led togreater brand attention. This suggests thatif a song is important to people they paymore attention if it has the original lyrics.If the song is not important, the alteredlyrics attract attention. It also suggeststhat the level of significance of the music

The individuals in this experiment processed songs and

artists they considered high in personai significance

differently from those that were iow in significance....

When the artist was significant, the original vocal led to

greater brand attention but when the artist was not

significant, the altered vocal led to greater brand

attention.. . . It suggests that the level of significance

of the music and/or the artist can affect involvement

possibly resulting in different processing of the

advertising messages.

and/or the artist can affect involvementpossibly resulting in different processingof the advertising messages.

While high personal significance can bea possible explanation for the attention-gaining value of original vocals, low per-sonal significance cannot adequatelyexplain the attention-gaining value of al-tered vocals. Three possible explanationsinclude the novelty of hearing a popularsong with altered lyrics (especially thefirst time); irritation caused by the changedlyrics; and/or the lack of fit of the song orthe artist with the brand. All of thesecould have been attention-gaining stimuli

causing greater attention to the brand andthe song. It is clear, however, that lyrics(either original or altered) are importantand that even though an interaction wasobserved for just one song and artist ("TheMiddle" by Jimmy Eat World) based onthe lyrics, the results are of practical im-portance to advertisers for two primaryreasons. First, the use of no music or aninstrumental version of a popular songshould be avoided. Second, if the adver-tiser is able to use a popular song that ispersonally significant to the target marketof the brand, then the original vocal ver-sion should be used, but if not, an alteredvocal version should be considered.

While high personal significance can be a possible

explanation for the attention-gaining value of original

vocals, low personal significance cannot adequately

explain the attention-gaining value of altered vocals.

December 2 0 0 6 JDOflflflL OF flDUERTISIIlG flESEflflCH 4 4 1

IVIemory

Although personal significance appearedto play a greater role for attention thanmemory, popular music's ability when per-sonally significant to enhance memory forthe brand was also observed. The results,however, were not as consistent. The ef-fects of significant songs and artists on

POPUt^R MUSIC IN ADVERTISING

The use of no music or an instrumental version of a

popuiar song siiouid be avoided. Second, if tiie advertiser

is able to use a popuiar song tiiat is personaiiy significant

to tiie target mari^et of tiie brand, tiien tiie originai vocai

version siiouid be used, but if not, an aitered vocai

version siiouid be considered.

brand memory were observed for one ofthe brands (Sony) for both the song ("With-out Me") and the artist (Eminem), withsome apparent significant effects for gen-ders. It is interesting to note that for theKodak brand, males were observed to havegreater memory for the brand than fe-males when the song and the artist ("TheMiddle" by Jimmy Eat World) were highlysignificant but that females had greatermemory for the brand when the song andthe artist were low in personal signifi-cance. This could suggest that males aremore sensitive to the level of personalsignificance they have for advertising mes-sages integrated in popular music thanfemales, but this would need futureresearch.

As with attention, it was observed inthe paired comparison tests that the ad-vertising treatment did affect brand recallwith original and altered vocals leadingto greater memory for the brand thaneither instrumentais or silence, contrary

to earlier findings (Olsen, 1995; Roehm,2001). It does appear that popular musicprovides some type of "framework forretrieving a text" (Wallace, 1994, p. 1482).Unfortunately, the lack of observation ofan interaction between significance of pop-ular songs or artists and advertising treat-ment does not provide any additionalsupport for those conclusions previouslysuggested with attention.

CONCLUSION

While this study certainly will not endthe debate about the potential of popularmusic, it does provide some additionaltheoretical attention to two cultural prod-ucts that are so saturated in our society:popular music and advertising. While theremay be an extensive amount of practicalresearch into the ever-increasing use ofpopular music in advertising available tothose using it, this study provides somemuch needed theoretical foundation forits use. The results of this study clearly

As witii attention, it was observed . . . that the treatment

[of popuiar music] did affect brand recaii with originai

and aitered vocais ieading to greater memory for the

brand than either instrumentais or siience.

4 4 2 JOOROIIL DF flDOERTISIIlG RESEflRCH December 2 0 0 6

indicate that popular music can be per-sonally significant to some individuals,and when used in advertising can affectattention and memory. And finally, origi-nal vocals appear to be more effectivewhen an individual finds personal signif-icance in the popular music used in ad-vertising, while altered vocals appear tobe more effective when the opposite istrue. Either way, personal significanceplays a role in the effectiveness of popu-lar music in advertising on attention andmemory,

DAVID ALLAN is an assistant professor of marketing in

the Erivan K. Haub Schooi of Business at Saint Jo-

seph's University in Phiiadeiphia, Pennsylvania. He

has an MBA in marl<eting from Saint Joseph's Univer-

sity and a Ph.D. in mass media and communications

from Temple University. In addition, Dr. Alian earned a

B.A. in communications from American University. He

has published numerous articies in the area of adver-

tising and popuiar culture and has taught extensively

In the area of marketing communications. Dr. Allan

has published in journais such as the International

Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Advertising and

Society, and Popular Musicology. In addition, he has

recently been interviewed about his radio, advertising,

and popuiar culture expertise by The Philadelphia

Inquirer and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Prior to his

academic career, he spent over 20 years in the radio

industry.

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