Chris Brown's Hit Song, "Forever," Also a Wrigley's Gum Commercial is a Hard Piece to Swallow

When I first heard the lyrics of Chris Brown’s hit song, "Forever," I though the injection of Doublemint’s jingle, “Double your pleasure. Double your fun” was clever and catchy. Today it was revealed by Wrigley that Chris Brown had been commissioned by the company to write and perform the song as part of its effort to update the company’s image. Upon consulting the music video (see below), I noticed that 11 seconds in, Brown pulls out a stick of gum and my first reaction was disgust and outrage at having been deceived yet fascination at how Wrigley was able to get a “jingle” all the way to the top of the pop charts.

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I’m a huge fan of product placement. If seeing my favorite TV character sip a certain branded beverage means that I don’t have to fast-forward through so many commercials, I’m all for it! I love that the characters on Gossip Girl as well as Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw have Bluefly shopping bags strewn about their apartments (even though Bluefly doesn’t actually have any brick and mortar stores). I’m nostalgic for the days before product placement on NBC’s The Office was pulled due to conflicts between advertisers and the creative needs of the show. And I was angered by the pleas for the FCC to be further involved in product placement regulation once McDonald’s iced coffee cups were recently placed on the desk of morning show anchors on a Meredith Las Vegas TV Station.

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This post originally appeared at JackMyers.com.

Comments

[ObamaSebelius]

05:55 AM on 07/31/2008

Wait a minute, you're mad at Chris Brown and WRIGLEY for not telling you that they had an agreement that it would be shopped as a single first, and then later come out as a 30 second jingle? You're got to be kiddling?

Actually, I think it was one of the most brilliant pieces of cross advertising I've ever witnessed. You have an American icon, WRIGLEY, and a pop icon, Chris Brown, and together they created a song that will surely make both parites incredibly wealthy.

This is not the first (and won't be the last) agreement between between artists and companies. They just did in a totally unusual way.

[mediamarv]

08:18 PM on 07/30/2008

It used to be called "payola." Not sure what the new term is.

That's how songs rise to the top. Bribes by those honest folks over at RIAA.