Martin’s Musical Expertise Featured in New York Times
Selling Products With a Swelling Score
When the figures on a graffiti mural came to vibrant life in a Coke commercial that debuted during the Olympics last month, they leapt, rolled and scaled buildings to the accompaniment of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” a movement of Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” Suite.
A Chevron commercial about the efficacy of drones gets a shot of adrenaline from that bane of piano students, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture, once used to sell Quaker puffed cereal, is now featured in an ad for Myrbetriq, a drug for treating an overactive bladder. Meanwhile, a Geico ad makes its point with an assist from Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3 — and a clueless percussionist shredding a triangle solo.
Classical music has long had a place in commercials. The Western canon’s aura makes it just the thing for pitching luxury brands like the Lincoln Motor Company, whose 2017 holiday ad unfolded over a track of Shostakovich’s swoony Waltz No. 2.
And just as Looney Tunes cartoons used chunks of Brahms, Rossini, Smetana and Chopin as oh-so-civilized foils for the mayhem of Bugs Bunny and associates, commercials have often juxtaposed “this supposedly educated music with foolishness and tomfoolery,” said David Muhlenfeld, vice president and creative director of the Martin Agency.
But these days, ad agencies are using classical music as more than a jokey device or a signifier of wealth and sophistication. A snippet of Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel” threads through an ad for the rugged but hardly luxe Jeep Cherokee. And Coke, while a classic, is the most democratic of beverages.
It may have something to do with pop fatigue.
Agencies also benefit from what the composer and arranger Robert Miller calls the recognition factor.
The risk for advertisers is turning off the audience. “People could be intimidated by classical music or feel they’re out of their depth,” Mr. Muhlenfeld of the Martin Agency said. There’s also a hazard of being just a bit too obvious: reflexively trotting out Delibes or Debussy to provide the soundtrack for a scene that shouts “tuxedo territory.”
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