Since the earliest days of commercial radio, companies have been using sound to worm their way into our brains. And over the decades, they’ve come up with all kinds of sonic tactics to make us want, crave and remember their products. In this episode, we take a whirlwind tour through the sounds of persuasion. This story was adapted from Under the Influence with Terry O’Reilly. Follow Dallas on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Watch our video shorts on YouTube, and join the discussion on Reddit and Facebook. Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to get our entire catalog ad-free. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org Send us a message with your Bass Tape memories at hi.20k.org. Subscribe to Under the Influence with Terry O’Reilly wherever you get your podcasts. Enter to win a free Scarlett audio interface at focusrite.com/20khz. Listen and subscribe to Class of 88 on Wondery. Get 15% off an annual MasterClass subscription at masterclass.com/20k. Support us by supporting our sponsors at 20k.org/sponsors. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/soundsthatsell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Grew up in the eighties and nineties, which meant I watched way too many tv commercials.
And back then, many of these ads were built around sound.
The taste is gonna move you when.
You pop it in your mouth juicy fruit is gonna move you.
I want my baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back, baby back I want my baby back, chili baby back I want my baby chili.
That Chili's jingle was written in the mid nineties by an ad executive named Guy Bomber.
At the time, he didn't think it was gonna work.
Here's guy in a great big story piece.
No one, not myself, no one at Chili's heard the piece of music after it was done and thought, this is gonna be around for 20 years.
I thought it would be gone after six weeks.
But guy was totally wrong.
His jingle was such a big hit that it quickly broke free of commercials and became a cultural phenomenon.
Mike Myers sang it in Austin Powers two I want my baby back, baby.
Back, baby back, baby back, baby back ribs I want my.
Steve Carell and Tim Meadows sang it in the office.
I want my baby back, baby back.
Baby back I want my baby back, baby back in a scrubs episode, Doctor Cox tortures another doctor by taping him to a chair in front of a group of singers.
Dear God, what do they say?
Ribs never.