Transcriber: Mustafa Ahmed Reviewer: Anna Sobota
[Music]
What you just heard is the so-called McDonald’s Jingle.
These five notes have been playing at the end of every McDonald’s ad
for over a decade.
You’ve most likely heard it before,
whether it was in front of your TV or on the radio.
Surprisingly enough, these five notes are pretty important.
They hold a few hidden abilities when it comes to understand
how we think as consumers.
These five nodes always manage to do one thing.
Whether they spark feelings of nostalgia
or simply make you extremely hungry,
these five notes make you feel something.
It’s not because they have some magical frequencies
that make you want to go to McDonald’s,
but simply because you link that sound to your memory.
For example, that time you went to McDonald’s with your friends for lunch
or that time you ordered a Happy Meal in the middle of the night.
Music links to memory.
It happens every day, we just hardly ever notice it.
Our brains are remarkable when it comes to making and storing
and retrieving memories of music.
I mean, take this, for example.
I'm sure that all of the students in this room
and anyone who has ever been to school can relate to this -
retrieving information from a textbook is pretty hard.
I remember having to repeat and reread the same paragraph
over and over again
because noting would stick in my brain.
Now, think of what happens when you listen to a good song.
In your first listen, you might come along and add it to your playlist,
and after a couple of listens, you might even know it by heart.
Our brains are amazing when it comes to music.
There are two essential parts of it involved in this process:
the hippocampus and the frontal cortex.
I’m not trying to turn this into a biology lecture.
My point is, these two parts of our brains are essential
when it comes to music.
They take in a lot of information every minute.
Unfortunately, it’s not very easy to identify it.
We don’t really work like Alexa:
we can ask for information and it’ll just come to us.
Music facilities this
becuase it uses rhymes and rhythm and melodies and alliterations
that help with the disclosure of this information.
Now, if we think about it, people have been aware of this for many years.
Think about epic stories such as Homer’s “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”.
These pieces had to be recited or sung before they could ever be written down.
They depended on memory.
Now, let’s take a step back.
Let’s go back to McDonald’s.
Back in 2003, when this jingle was written,
McDonald's public image was faltering, to say the least.
They were associated with childhood obesity and many of the negative things
which caused their stock price to be at a seven year low.
But one of the reasons
why they ended up being the successful company that they are today
is because they managed to do the one thing that I spoke about before.
They made people feel something.
They didn’t double the bacon on the burgers.
They didn’t make the freis bigger.
They made people feel something because those five notes,
they’re quick, catchy and fun.
They made people think about friends and family.
They turned their product into an experience.
McDonald’s became a place
where you could spend time with your family while also eating burgers.
Music is the best tool to create an experience.
Music is the bridge between your product and your consumer.
Unfortunately, today in advertising, music is usually an afterthought.
I mean, people think about the visual aspect, the colors,
the fonts, the images, the shapes, the words.
They don’t really think about the music.
But as I said before,
it’s the best tool to gain experience,
whether it’s a catchy song or a simple jingle like this one.
So the next time that you're out and you see an advertisement,
whether it’s on your phone or on Netflix or in the cinema,
pay attention to how the music makes you feel.
Thank you.