Friday, August 28, 2020
Writing for the ear
Listening to 1947 episodes of the low-quality quiz show Double or Nothing. This was a big-budget network production, but the questions were stupid by comparison to other quiz shows. Even the advertising jingles were stupid.
Campbell Soup was the sponsor, and two familiar products had jingles.
The Franco-American jingle was sung to the tune of 'Oh dear what can the matter be', which is already a dubious association.
F! A! Franco-American!
F! A! Franco-American!
F! A! Franco-American!
It's got that really good sauce.
It's got that really good sauce? Is that the best you can do? Also, a lot of US radio was being heard in Britain through AFRS, and F A has a very specific meaning in British English.
The soup jingle is the universally familiar tune, but the words weren't the same as later versions.
Mmm Mmm Good.
Mmm Mmm Good.
That's what Campbell Soups are: Mmm Mmm Good.
The sentence doesn't make sense unless you can "hear" the colon.
Later versions straightened out the sentence into a declarative statement.
Every Campbell Soup is Mmm Mmm Good.
Writing for the ear isn't easy. Often the low-budget syndicated shows did a better job, because they weren't trying to be Grammatical And Elegant.
Labels: Entertainment
¶ 7:37 AM
