A Brief Definition and History of Political Jingles

The advent of radio and television gave rise to a new form of advertising known as the jingle. Jingles are short, catchy songs that are used to advertise a product or service. In a political setting they are used to promote a particular candidate or political issue. The jingle differs from the songs represented on sheet music, broadsides, and songsters as it is a prerecorded audio or video performance of the piece that will air on radio, television, or online.  A well-crafted jingle has the power to get stuck in the listener's head and might influence a voter’s thoughts long after they have forgotten the words of a long-winded stump speech. Jingle writer Susan Hamilton commented that writing that perfect jingle requires a creative balance of “clarity of message” and “memorability in the music” as well as “frequency” or the amount of airtime the campaign has purchased to get the jingle out in front of listeners.

One of the groundbreaking moments in the history of political advertising was the jingle "I Like Ike" that was used to promote Dwight D. Eisenhower during his presidential campaign against Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Stevenson came out with his own televised jingles to counter Eisenhower’s ad. This Stevenson piece,"Vote Stevenson," uses the time honored technique of putting new words to an existing melody which in this case is "Oh Tannenbaum." (see below)

Stevenson also released a jingle with original text and melody, "I Luv the Guv." Unfortunately for Stevenson, the ads were not enough to sway the majority of the voters and Eisenhower won the election that year.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy<