Effective Advertising

I watched a lot of football this weekend.  Those who know me will not find this a surprise.  It seemed like during every commercial break I saw during every game I watched on every single network the same commercial was shown.  It probably wasn’t literally every commercial break, everyone’s guilty of confirmation bias some time or another, but it was on often enough to have left an imprint on me.

In this commercial NFL quarterback Peyton Manning goes about his daily life, making a running commentary on his actions in the form of impromptu songs all sung to the tune of the Nationwide jingle: “Nationwide is on your side.”  If you don’t know the specific jingle, don’t worry.  As long as you understand what a jingle is and how those little tunes can become earworms you’ll get this story.

At one point in the commercial Manning is standing in his kitchen about to eat a large sandwich and he intones, “Chicken Parm you taste so good.”  I tend to agree with him on that point.

Last night on the way home from work I stopped at Hipster Kroger to grab some groceries.  I needed to get something for dinners this week, but I hadn’t planned ahead about what I was getting.  As I pulled into the parking lot the jingle popped into my head: Chicken Parm you taste so good.

With the decision made, I bought all of the ingredients necessary to make, well, assemble, chicken parm this week.  Based on last night’s experience I can unequivocally say, “Chicken Parm you taste so good.”

Congratulations Nationwide.  You have created a very effective advertisement for selling Chicken Parmesan.  Too bad that wasn’t the product you were actually trying to sell.