Friday, December 02, 2011

Jingle all the way

Dear Radio Sales People Marketing Account Representatives,

Quit writing your ad copy with instructions to "add Christmas bells under".
This means we are supposed to record the commercial as usual, but add the sound of tickling bells along with our voice and the client's music jingle.
What you want is your client's commercial to sound festive without swapping out their usual jingle with actual Christmas music. 
I get that.
I do.

But, can you pick some other way to make it "Christmassy"?
The jingle bell sound effects file we have is just the sound of some guy shaking bells.
To his own beat.
Throw that behind a client's catchy jingle, and the beats don't match.

Oh, sure.
We can mess with things and match the two up.
But that takes time.
And if every stinking one of you is requesting "add Christmas bells under" on just about every client's ad, that's a lot of messing and matching going on.
We just don't have that kind of time on the production end of things.
At least, not at our station with its skeleton staff.

What I heard this morning is several ads with "Christmas bells under".
It was as festive as hearing "crickets chirping under".
And just as pleasant.

I don't have an alternative answer to "Christmas bells under".
Maybe you can write something that conveys Christmas spirit so the listener knows what it's about without being beat over the head with a frickin' bell.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does your station have enough petty cash for one of those cheap strings of jingle bells they sell now? Someone could shake those to the beat of the jingle, while the voice person reads.
Sincerely, Chris Johnson

Christie Critters said...

That just sounds so obnoxious...With a little thought they surely ought to be able to do better! I think that you should substitute the barking dog jingle bells under everything...

Oblivious Beast said...

THE BELLS! THE BELLS! *arhhhgg*

Quinn and Angel brandi said...

I think they DESERVE the barking dogs!

Roses said...

Brings back memories of this:

http://ackthbbbt.blogspot.com/2007/06/voices-in-my-head-nowwith-musical.html

Enjoy!