Surprise! Hit Song is Secretly a Commercial

R&B singer Chris Brown has a top 10 hit out at the moment called “Forever”. It’s actually number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 right now, and it’s gaining in popularity. It may even reach #1.

The strange thing is, “Forever” is part of a deep mental product placement scheme. Brown is one of three pop stars hired by ad agency Translation Advertising to help upgrade the sagging images of the Wrigley gum brands. All three singers have created new songs based on jingles from Wrigley’s past.

The song’s chorus contains a line that seems at first to be a clever reference to the old Doublemint gum jingle: “Double your pleasure/double your fun”. The placement was intentional though, to prime the listeners to be receptive to the Chris Brown Doublemint jingle featured in commercials coming out next month. The song was released in April, and it’s commercial origins were only just reveled recently.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The campaign was conceived and executed by Mr. Stoute, a former senior executive at Interscope Records who counts rapper Jay-Z as a partner in his business. The idea was to connect the hit song and the jingle in listener’s minds. That way, Mr. Stoute says, “by the time the new jingle came out, it was already seeded properly within popular culture.

[WSJ: Chew On This: Hit Song Is a Gum Jingle]