Plop, Plop, Fizz...
Why are pharmaceutical jingles so sticky even if we hate them?
I had a text exchange with a friend who was amused, horrified, annoyed by a pharmaceutical jingle he was served. It happened to be Skyrizi’s “Nothing is Everything” – listen only if you want the earworm. Although, I imagine you’ve heard it. And he suggested I write about it. Typically this is a place for visual communication, but then I saw that Mary Wells Lawrence died recently, and she was responsible for the iconic Alka-Seltzer jingle “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.” Jingles are in the cards this week.
Memory and Music
Why are jingles so sticky even if we hate them? I occasionally overhear someone humming one at work. People forget all kinds of words both written and spoken that they encounter in the course of a day. We even forget words that we’re trying hard to remember like our grocery list or the name of that movie someone recommended. But when you put words to music, that’s a new ballgame. We don't consider it amazing at all that we might know all the lyrics to the songs from our favorite musician.
The hippocampus and the frontal cortex are two areas in the brain associated with memory and they process millions of pieces of information every day. Getting the information into those areas is relatively easy, says Dr. Roediger. What is difficult is pulling data out efficiently. Music, he says, provides a rhythm, a rhyme and often, alliteration. All that structure is the key to unlocking information stored in the brain—with music acting as a cue, he says. Source
Therefore as long as there has been advertising, there have been jingles. But why so many pharmaceutical jingles? For one, medicines (while they may do wonderful things) are pretty boring to talk about. Have this? Take this. Originally, people took one Alka-Seltzer tablet. They found that taking two was more beneficial, so they repackaged them in two packs but also made the genius move to double the words in the jingle.
The Side Effects
These days, a large chunk of screen time legally has to be filled with possible side effects. The music helps to refocus your brain on the jingle rather than thinking about nausea or oily discharge or tuberculosis. Sometimes you just have to make light of diarrhea:
Another factor is that these pharmaceutical companies buy A LOT of air time. You’re going to see it more than once which helps cement it in your head.
The Names
And then there are the names. The pharmaceutical name for Skyrizi is risankizumab-rzaa, assigned by the USAN Program. Skyrizi is a nickname of sorts made up by the drug company and/or marketing firm. But even if you don’t have to remember the technical name (whew), the nickname is still just a made up word that you're not likely to remember unless it comes with a jingle.
Pharmaceutical names are assigned according to a scheme in which specific syllables in the drug name (called stems) convey “information about the chemical structure, action, or indication of the drug. The name also includes a prefix that is distinct from other drug names and that is euphonious, memorable, and acceptable to the sponsoring pharmaceutical firm. Source
Mark Ritson
A deeper dive into pharmaceutical naming. I totally forgot about Bamlanivimab whose commercial was set to the song Black Betty.
If you’re willing to go there, here is a (not super current) playlist of pharmaceutical jingles. Maybe come up with a quick jingle for that grocery list this week.
Bonus points if you A) made it this far, and B) remembered the second part of the Alka-Seltzer jingle: "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."