Like many of you, I’ve been laughing along with those outstanding NJM commercials while watching the news or while online.
You know the ones. The NJM logo turns into a slogan “No Jingles or Mascots” after either a guy in a narwhal (it’s a kind of whale; think the one from the movie Elf) costume colored NJM light blue tries to get a meeting with the company to be their mascot.
The other one features a guy singing jingles that are less than stellar.
Congratulations to whomever dreamed up this ad campaign. It’s excellent.
It’s also fun to know that NJM’s southern New Jersey hub is right here in Hammonton.
Here’s the thing, though: While NJM may not want mascots or jingles, and that’s totally OK with me, The Gazette has a mascot in Fenway, the loveable goldendoodle.
Now all we need is a jingle.
And that’s where we need the help of you, the readers of The Gazette.
Here’s how it works: Tag The Gazette with your jingle on social media: Twitter (HammGazette), Facebook (HammontonGazette) and Instagram (HammGazetteFenway). Or you can email your jingle to me at donio@hammontongazette.com.
Use your creativity. Feel free to add music behind your jingle. We’re looking for something short, catchy and fun to describe The Gazette to the reading public.
When I was a kid, one of the most famous jingles on television was for a Hammonton business on the White Horse Pike known by most simply as Ideal. Today the building is being renovated for another use.
Decades ago, people came from miles around to the store because of a catchy jingle that Ideal’s then-owner, the late Nat Press, had made specifically for the store. He flew in his own plane down to Nashville (he had his own plane and an airstrip behind Ideal) and put the new jingle on television channels like Channel 17 or the long-gone Channel 48. It was a huge hit, and the customers came pouring into the Hammonton store.
People of a certain age remember it: “If you’ve got a passion for fashion/And you’ve got a craving for savings/Take the wheel of your automobile/And swing on down to…Ideal!”
A close second, although not quite a jingle? When the late Jimmy Rodio would smoothly tell listeners of his “Saturday Night Bandstand” show on FM 105 WRDR: “So Be Sure. See Sure. Sure Insurance. Where the service is fine at Second and Vine in the heart of beautiful downtown Hammonton.”
The point of a jingle or slogan is that it sticks with people. It’s an earworm—once it’s stuck in your head, it stays there. How that happens with our new jingle is up to the talented readers of this newspaper.
We’re looking forward to seeing what you create and post on your social media accounts or send via email.
So, all you potential jingle-makers out there, get your bands together (or your computer synthesizers), put on your rhyming caps and have some late summer fun as you help The Gazette find a jingle.
Who knows? We may just find a new jingle that rivals Ideal’s classic tune from years ago.
Gabe Donio is the publisher of The Hammonton Gazette.