Chris Brown's Hit Song, "Forever," Also a Wrigley’s Gum Commercial is a Hard Piece to Swallow

When I first heard the lyrics of Chris Brownamp8217s hit song quotForeverquot I though the injection of Doublemintamp8217s jingle amp8220Double your pleasure Double your funamp8221 was clever and catchy Today it was revealed by Wrigley that Chris Brown had been commissioned by the company to write and perform the song as part of its effort to update the companyamp8217s image Upon consulting the music video see below I noticed that 11 seconds in Brown pulls out a stick of gum and my first reaction was disgust and outrage at having been deceived yet fascination at how Wrigley was able to get a amp8220jingleamp8221 all the way to the top of the pop charts MTV Music Videos MTV Shows Entertainment News Iamp8217m a huge fan of product placement If seeing my favorite TV character sip a certain branded beverage means that I donamp8217t have to fastforward through so many commercials Iamp8217m all for it I love that the characters on Gossip Girl as well as Sex and the Cityamp8217s Carrie Bradshaw have Bluefly shopping bags strewn about their apartments even though Bluefly doesnamp8217t actually have any brick and mortar stores Iamp8217m nostalgic for the days before product placement on NBCamp8217s The Office was pulled due to conflicts between advertisers and the creative needs of the show And I was angered by the pleas for the FCC to be further involved in product placement regulation once McDonaldamp8217s iced coffee cups were recently placed on the desk of morning show anchors on a Meredith Las Vegas TV StationJack Myers recently wrote about FCC policies on product placement saying that amp8220Today media consumers and especially younger ones are sophisticated enough to recognize integrated marketing messages and to appropriately reward or ignore those companies that invest to support their favorite contentamp8221The case of Chris Brownamp8217s hit song later being revealed as a commercial is one of the rare instances in which media consumers were not sophisticated enough to recognize the song as a commercial After all the song was released last April as a single Jive Records pleased with the songamp8217s success rereleased the song on Brownamp8217s 2007 album amp8220Exclusiveamp8221 in June This is quite different from celebrity endorsers singing campaign jingles in commercials amp8220Foreveramp8221 is or perhaps was a bona fide Billboard hit Many blogs and message boards are so outraged at the deceptive advertising that theyamp8217re calling for a boycott on all Wrigley gum Iamp8217d join the boycotters myself if only I were a Wrigley gum consumer in the first place You can bet I don39t plan on becoming one anytime soon For now Iamp8217ll just boycott the song a song I once really really liked A Wrigley press conference will be held tomorrow in New York during which two additional jingles will be unveiled amp8211 a rendition of the Big Redamp8217s amp8220Kiss a Little Longeramp8221 jingle by NeYo and a version of Juicy Fruit39s quotThe Taste is Gonna Move Yaquot by Julianne Hough 30second Doublemint commercials featuring Brownamp8217s jingle will begin airing on television next month

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Chris Brown's Hit Song, "Forever," Also a Wrigley’s Gum Commercial is a Hard Piece to Swallow

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Nina Spezzaferro

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Chris Brown's Hit Song, "Forever," Also a Wrigley’s Gum Commercial is a Hard Piece to Swallow

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Nina Spezzaferro

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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