The Infinite Dial

There are probably some Top 40 program directors who would have liked some advance notice that Chris Brown's "Forever," their No. 3 song at this writing, was always intended as a jingle for Wrigley's Doublemint Gum -- the exhortation to "double your pleasure, double your fun" turning out to be more than just another random R&B/Hip-Hop allusion plucked from 40 years of pop culture ("I like the Whopper/[bleep] the Big Mac"). Broadcasters might have given some thought to whether they wanted to provide Wrigleys with free spots.

But probably not. Radio has never complained before about the various product placements in songs before, even after the suggestion a few years ago at one industry panel that artists start charging for shout-outs only momentarily raised eyebrows. Nobody in radio worries about playing the iTunes jingle when they play Coldplay's "Viva La Vida"; indeed, being part of an ad campaign has been one of the label promotion person talking points for new songs for the several years now.

As labels look for more revenue sources, the success of "Forever" is likely to spawn more placements. Will listeners mind? They've been indifferent for several years to the proliferation of product plugs in movies and TV although various public interest groups and the consumer press have been working harder to make a public issue of it this summer. The irony is that radio itself is still struggling with the sponsorship-instead-of-spots model, although many in the industry expect to see it take hold eventually.

One does wonder here what would have happened if the music industry had somehow been successful in pushing through a performance royalty for broadcast radio. Would the confectioner or label exempt radio from paying for the privilege of airing their commercial? Does it plan to do the same for the Internet and satellite broadcasters who do currently pay performance royalties?

And no matter how succesful the campaign may be, "Forever" will never be the best product placement for a Wrigley's product. That would still be "Juicy Fruit," the 1983 R&B classic, minor pop hit, and eventual Notorious B.I.G. sample from Mtume, in which the chewing gum (along with Good 'N' Plenty) got a shout-out for free (as far as we know). In that different time, the Wrigley's folks might not even have appreciated the song's PG-13-rated double entendre, although it probably would cause little corporate consternation now.