Two things I really like are music and marketing. I like them so much because both can be so moving, artful and creative. There are therefore also only 2 things that scare me, and one of them is marketers using music inappropriately. In “We Love Bands, not Brands” I took issue with the claim that consumers could fall in love with a Brand merely because they were a source of revenue for their favorite Bands. To me that was just an excuse for paying a royalty for a great song just to have it play in the background of some hastily slapped together B-roll in hopes that the mere association would spark some type of a conditioned response in the puny consumer brain. In “All I Want for Christmas” I said to stop relying solely on ‘lightning in a bottle hit music creativity’ as a substitute for the ‘lack of your own’ and to leave the musicians be; we used to like them but now that we associate art with corporate America, we don’t like either anymore.

A common thread on this blog has something to do with either misappropriating the creative process in ads or missing it all together. Using music is cool, so long as it isn’t obvious that it’s a strategy in and of itself.

But this Holiday Season I’ve had somewhat of a change of heart. Here are my top 10 songs that I’d like to see picked up by Big Brands and used in a TV commercial. Included for each is a hyperlink to YouTube in case you want to take a listen:

   10) Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano. Do you know what Jose Feliciano wants more than anything? …for you to have a Merry Christmas. This man took 3 minutes and 2 seconds out of his day and hammered home that one simple message no less than 39 times. He didn’t beat around the bush. He didn’t need to paint a picture of frosted windowpanes or pretty paper. No mention of snow, or reindeer or even the big cheese himself. Never has anyone been so determined to express so succinctly a desire for others to be joyful and to have a wonderful holiday season. Musically, I’m not sure that I can name another song where the chorus is the verse and the verse is the chorus. It’s closest rival, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, offers the salutation a paltry 10 times and is perhaps more well known for sustaining “figgy pudding” well past any reasonable time a desert dish should in the annals of popular culture (around the 16th century, peasant class carolers would stand on the doorsteps of the wealthy and while singing the English folk song, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, half-heartedly add the lyrics “Oh bring us some figgy pudding,” and “we won’t go until we get some,”). It just seems to me like a no brainer that can be used in any ad.

   9) If We Make It Through December – Merle Haggard. There is no way that Merle Haggard, in 1973, could have known the meaning that ‘If We Make It Through December’ would have taken on 47 years later. Most every Christmas card rolling in this year has a variation on the same message; good riddance 2020, possibly the most abysmal year in the last century. Down on his luck and facing some hard times, If We Make It Through December tells the tale of one working class man’s desperate optimism in dealing with economic hardship. Christmas is not so much a central theme but a backdrop lending support to his hope for a better tomorrow. Without reading too much into it, I’m sure people who’ve never heard that song (which is probably most) could latch on to the chorus and extrapolate subjective meaning of their own. “If we make it through December, everything’s gonna be all right, I know”. I mean, I’ll buy what whoever makes me forget this year is selling.

   8) Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight) – The Ramones. With marketers doing their part to address political and social damage, what better message of healing can be gleaned from the Ramones simple message that “Christmas ain’t the time for breaking each other’s hearts? I Love you and you Love me. That’s the way it’s got to be. Where is Rudolph? Where is Blitzen, baby?”. It’s marketing gold. There’s got to be an advertiser out there that can use this song – is there not!?

   7) I Won’t Be Home for Christmas – Blink 182. Released at the height of their juvenile phase, this Blink 182 Scrooge-infused gem rocks! Never mind the chorus, “It’s Christmas time, Again, it’s time to be nice to the people who you can’t stand, all year, I’m growing tired of this Christmas cheer. You people scare me, please stay away from my home, if you don’t wanna get me down, just leave the presents and then just let me be alone.” I can totally see skate rats dressed as Elves shredding a half pipe and swigging Mountain Dew or eating Doritos or something. Thank me later PepsiCo or Frito-Lay…

   6) The Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Pickett. YES. A Halloween song for Christmas. Any marketer would stand out like a sore thumb… and isn’t that the goal??

   5) All I Want for Christmas Is You (Extra Festive) – Mariah Carey. I know what you’re thinking – the most played out Christmas song of all time?! Bad idea MBD. But wait…it’s the “Extra Festive” version. This really exists. It’s the same exact song but with an extended intro and additional instruments and voices. It just might be the savior for a brand in freefall attempting a last-ditch effort… like Diet Pepsi or something.

   4) O Tannenbaum – Vince Guaraldi Trio. O Tannenbaum is the opening track on the jazzy ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio which was released in December 1965 to complement what would become TV’s greatest Christmas Special. A Charlie Brown Christmas aired on Dec 9th of that same year on CBS, pulling a 45 share, trailing only Bonanza. It paved the way for a series of Peanuts television films and specials. Since the show was devoted to Charlie Brown’s search for the perfect Christmas tree, I thought this song would work well with some type of “searching” theme; a lost dog searching for his home, a child searching for a lost letter to Santa, a dopey guy wandering around like a clueless putz in search of the perfect gift for his wife. In the end everything works out and the marketer plugs their “be with the ones you love…blah blah blah” message. Oh, but I forgot, Apple has the Peanuts Gang under lock and key, presumably along with the soundtrack, so you can forget it !

   3) Snoopy’s Christmas – The Royal Guardsmen. Continuing with my obsession with the Peanuts Gang lately … According to Spotify, “the Royal Guardsmen enjoyed a brief reign of pop fame in 1966-1968 by recording a series of songs taking off from the Peanuts cartoon character Snoopy and his fantasy about aerial dog fighting with German WW1 flying ace Baron Von Richthofen”. I can’t imagine that Apples’ control of the Peanuts commercial use extends to the Guardsmen’s sound recordings. The song depicts a fierce dogfight in the sky between Snoopy and his foe on Christmas Eve. The Baron has Snoopy ‘dead in his sights’, but upon hearing ‘Christmas bells ringing from the village below’, spares our hero and instead wishes him a Merry Christmas! Even arch enemies can lay down their swords at Christmas time.

   2) We are the People Our Parents Warned Us About – Jimmy Buffet. Another non-Holiday song, but that works with the right visual. Picture a group of Gen X’ers at an ugly sweater Holiday house Party, after the kids have all gone to bed, empty wine bottles strewn everywhere. “We are the people, they couldn’t figure out. We are the people our parents warned us about”. If you’re a marketer targeting A35-54, you’d be a fool not to adopt this concept and make it your own.

   1) A Baby Just Like You – John Denver and the Muppets / Frank Sinatra. Although I’m partial to the Frank Sinatra version, I must give credit first to John Denver who wrote and performed the original version on 1975’s ‘A Rocky Mountain Christmas’ and then again in 1979 on ‘John Denver and the Muppets A Christmas Together’. According to muppet.fandom, “Denver wrote the song for his then-infant son, Zachary at Christmas time and recounts the joys of the season”. Sinatra changed the lyric to “Merry Christmas little Angela” to include the name of his new granddaughter (daughter of Nancy Sinatra). In his grand olive oil baritone, he floats the lyrics “O little angel, shining light, you’ve set my soul to dreaming. You’ve given back my joy in life and filled me with new meaning”. I wish CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) could cast a wider net and use this song. It’s beautiful, with one beautiful wish – “That peace on Earth fills up your time, that brotherhood surrounds you. That you may know the warmth of love and wrap it all around you.”

Peace on Earth. I can’t think of a better cause than that.

Merry Christmas Everyone.