Wrigley, recording artists adapt songs for ads

CHICAGO Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. has got some tricks up its sleeves for its latest commercial, including working jingles into newly-released “hit” songs, the Wall Street Journal today reported.

For example, a new track being released by artist Chris Brown, “Forever,” comes with a built-in extended version of a new Doublemint jingle. The jingle will be featured in 30-second spots for Wrigley’s chewing gum beginning next month.

Reports said that Brown and a couple other pop stars have been working with the ad agency Translation Advertising, an arm of Interpublic Group, to pump up some of Wrigley’s brands.

The spirit of the campaign is to work with emerging artists debuting tunes and turn them into jingles. Other talents on the Wrigley campaign lineup include country singer Julianne Hough singing Juicy Fruit’s “The taste is gonna move ya” and R&B singer Ne-Yo performing the “kiss a little longer” song for Big Red gum.

The new Wrigley “songs” will be released at a news conference in New York tomorrow where artists will perform live. The TV ads, radio placements and print ads previewing new Wrigley packaging will first appear in August.