B-O-L-O-G-N-A: The staying power of Oscar Mayer’s jingle

The advertisement uses Sprechstimme, a vocal technique that's sort of halfway between speaking and singing, James Kellaris, PhD, a professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati, told NPR’s All Things Considered.

“This jingle works marketing magic,” said Kellaris, who researches music in advertising at UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business. “The minor incongruities create a kind of cognitive distraction that increases message acceptance. So it lowers sales resistance through distraction.”

The jingle — which begins, “My bologna has a first name. It's O-S-C-A-R.” — is an earworm that gave the company free airplay inside people's brains.

“I have to confess, I'm more of mortadella kind of guy,” Kellaris said. “But if there were an earworms hall of fame, it would be inducted in the first class.”

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