Big Red Redux: Or, WTF?

Cafe Society
1

I just saw a Verizon commercial that shows its coverage areas mapped in scarlet, accompanied by that old obnoxious jingle from Big Red chewing gum, lyrics adapted to refer to cell phones instead.

Now, we’ve all rolled our eyes at various atrocities perpetrated on pop music standards by Madison Avenue, either original recordings or adapted to specifically refer to and advertised product. But has this ever happened before, that an old commercial jingle has been reused, even adapted, for another totally unrelated product?

What’s next, “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz” being retooled to sell toilet cleanser? “Sometimes you feel like a nut” for Viagra?

2

Not quite what you had in mind but I always thought it was a little odd how they reused the “Nairobi Trio” song from the Ernie Kovaks show for the old Colt 45 commercials. Of course those commercials are classics now but it seems like kind of a strange choice.