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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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Product Placement in Chris Brown's "Forever" Music Video

Published: July 28, 2008 at 05:00 AM GMT
Last Updated: July 30, 2008 at 05:00 AM GMT

By Nina Spezzaferro

When I first heard the lyrics of Chris Brown’s hit song, "Forever," I though the injection of Doublemint’s jingle, “Double your pleasure. Double your fun” 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 company’s 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 “jingle” all the way to the top of the pop charts.

I’m a huge fan of product placement. If seeing my favorite TV character sip a certain branded beverage means that I don’t have to fast-forward through so many commercials, I’m all for it! I love that the characters on Gossip Girl as well as Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw have Bluefly shopping bags strewn about their apartments (even though Bluefly doesn’t actually have any brick and mortar stores). I’m nostalgic for the days before product placement on NBC’s 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 McDonald’s iced coffee cups were recently placed on the desk of morning show anchors on a Meredith Las Vegas TV Station.

Jack Myers recently wrote about FCC policies on product placement, saying that “Today, 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 content.”

The case of Chris Brown’s 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 song’s success, re-released the song on Brown’s 2007 album, “Exclusive” in June. This is quite different from celebrity endorsers singing campaign jingles in commercials. “Forever” is (or perhaps, was) a bona fide Billboard hit.

Many blogs and message boards are so outraged at the deceptive advertising that they’re calling for a boycott on all Wrigley gum. I’d join the boycotters myself if only I were a Wrigley gum consumer in the first place. You can bet I don't plan on becoming one anytime soon. For now, I’ll 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 – a rendition of the Big Red’s “Kiss a Little Longer” jingle by Ne-Yo and a version of Juicy Fruit's "The Taste is Gonna Move Ya" by Julianne Hough. 30-second Doublemint commercials featuring Brown’s jingle will begin airing on television next month.

To communicate with or to be contacted by the executives and/or companies mentioned in this column, link to JackMyers Connection Hotline.

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Reader Comments(4)

I'M CERTAINLY NOT OUTRAGED. I'M PLEASED AS PUNCH, THAT FIRST OF ALL CHRIS WAS ABLE TO WRITE A JINGLE INTO A SONG, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTS THAT HE DID IT IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES. AND THEN THE RELATED SONG, BECOMES A #3 BILLBOARD HIT..PHENOMENAL. BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER - JAY-Z'S NEW ADVERTISING FIRM WAS ABLE TO CONVINCE WRIGLEY'S TO ELICITE THESE YOUNG URBAN ARTIST TO REACH THE YOUNG MASSES...I'D SAY THESE TWO YOUNG MEN WILL BE ON TOP 'FOR-EV-EV-ER,FOR-EV-EV-ER,FOR-EV-EV-ER...LOVING IT !!BY THE WAY, I HAVEN'T HAD WRIGLEYS IN YEARS, BUT WITH ALL THIS HYPE, I'M GOING OUT TO GET MY FAVORITE JUICY FRUIT, JUST FOR NOSTALGIA SAKE,WHILE YOU GUYS STAY OUTRAGED:0

Posted at 08:07 AM on Jul 29, 2008 by cbfan

What is the outrage about. Chris was commissioned to first write the 'song'. What is so deceptive about the fact that he did that and opened a piece of gum and said 'double your pleaure,double your fun'? His jingle has not been released yet. And since today's consumers are so sophisticated, what harm was done. They enjoyed an energetic pop dance song, that will now bring them the same joy when they hear it as a jingle..But how many of them have been fooled or tricked into buying Wrigley's gum..Can't believe many..But I have to give Jay-Z mad props for pulling off this big deal with his new advertising company. And to young Chris,for being just an all around creative guru, he did the song and jingle within an hour - and it's a number 3 hit. Guess all that success from them both is the true outrage!!

Posted at 08:33 AM on Jul 29, 2008 by asdf

I recognized the Wrigley's Doublemint jingle almost immediately in Chris' song Forever. However, it didn't influence me in any way to purchase the gum. I was a avid consumer of Doublemint gum for many years throughout my childhood, teens & as a young adult, until dental visits for chronic teeth issues, forced me into consuming sugarless products.

Today I am happy consumer of a sugar free gum product which took little time acquiring a taste for. So no, Chris' song doesn't affect me as a consumer. I make personal decisions on my consumption of products whether they're commercialized or not.

I'm a little disturbed that as adults we're making choices to protest a product, a song or artist, which is a form of punishment simply based our obliviousness to notice a jingle within a well written song.

I say continue the song "Forever" as it did exactly as promised, "doubled your pleasure, doubled your fun..."

Posted at 07:46 AM on Jul 31, 2008 by Tia MC

I don't see any reason for all the fuss. If this bothers you, where were you when Juan Pablo Montoya started driving the Wrigley's NASCAR? Why are you holding music out as the last pure medium?

Posted at 06:37 AM on Aug 4, 2008 by jonnie boy