Harris Sales in Alliance distributes bread to supermarkets and other stores. Plus snack foods, tortillas, and more.
With that information, I have written many, many commercials for them. I have written commercials about the old saying “greatest thing since sliced bread”. And how bread gets a bum rap sometimes because people say a lazy person is “loafing” and a grouchy person is “crusty.”
Recently, it was time once again to create something new for them. We try not to let commercials air too long; sometimes the client prefers to stick with the same thing. One client of ours has been running the same single 30-second commercial as long as I’ve worked at Radio City, and I’d wager it goes a good ten years or more before that too.
But Harris Sales needed a new angle. So I sat facing an empty screen. I don’t usually get “Writer’s Block” because I just start typing and see what happens. And….uh….this is what happened for Harris Sales.
That’s Gles (good old game-for-anything Gles) and me dueting on “Won’t You Bring Home Some Bread Now?” Music by Hughie Cannon, lyrics by Hoagy Wentmichael. It’s sung (ish) to the tune of “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey”, a song I was surprised to find is in the public domain. But it is. I know this because:
A) I found it on a list of public domain songs online and
B) There was an instrumental version of it for The Doodletown Bread Pipers to sing to in our commercial production music library, which consists entirely of tracks cleared for radio use. “Bill Bailey” is a song that was performed by all your classic-type crooners and jazz vocalists.
Oh, and what of “All The Quakers Are Shoulder-Shakers”? Yep, real song. Yep, in public domain. Hard research is put into these things, I tell you!
At this point you may be asking, “Wenty, have you no shame? You put yourself in these commercials crooning with a voice that can best be described as ‘hideous bordering on mediocre’.” Well, quite plainly, when it comes to radio commercials, yes, I have no shame. I just last week did a commercial where I attempted an imitation of the NFL FIlms guy’s voice. Not even close. It sounds like Pat Summerall 60 minutes after taking a valium. But it does the job! And our little bread song will worm its way into many brains. Music has that power, no matter how goofy it is or how shakily it is performed.
I close by presenting two very, very old commercials with our KCOW gang vocalizing. First it’s the whole bunch of us singing the praises of a sandwich, then it’s me singing “Lunch Was On My Mind”. Here comes the Disney Plus disclaimer:
These commercials were produced and aired over a decade ago, during a time when we were unaware of the potential liabilities related to using copyrighted music in commercials. We have since adapted a firm company-wide policy of no copyrighted music in commercials, for the protection of our company and our clients.