Thursday, November 14, 2013

Marketing Mayhem What’s Your Function?

If you are of a certain age or older you will likely remember the ABC program that featured "Conjunction Junction" program from the 1970s Saturday morning children's show "Schoolhouse Rock!"

Schoolhouse Rock! was a programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming on the television network ABC. The topics covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. The series' original run lasted from 1973 to 1985, and was later revived with both old and new episodes airing from 1993 to 1999. Additional episodes were produced as recently as 2009 for direct-to-video release.

Now there is an advertising campaign by Norfolk Southern Railway that does a fantastic job of a “Cover” of the "Conjunction Junction" song.

Here is a link to the YouTube video. http://youtu.be/OL_V_y2zYR4

The video was the high point of the otherwise largely perfunctory shareholders meeting. It was the first showing of the new Norfolk Southern TV commercial, which premiered at a National Train Day event at Union Station in Washington.

"There's a familiar song in it that some of you may recognize," the chairman said in introducing the commercial.

The ad, to air soon on cable channels, vamps on the "Conjunction Junction" feature from the 1970s Saturday morning children's show "Schoolhouse Rock!"

Against the backdrop of a collage of Norfolk Southern locomotives and other images, a funky chorus of singers wails, "Norfolk Southern, what's your function? Hooking up the country, helping business run" and "Norfolk Southern, how's that function? Helping this big country move ahead as one."

Reminds me of the saying “Every Thing Old Is New Again.”

If you’re like me you’ve been mesmerized by Norfolk Southern’s commercial set to the melody of Schoolhouse Rock, “Conjunction Junction.”. What made the original so memorable was the unmistakable voice of Jack Sheldon. If you’re old enough, you remember him as the wisecracking trumpet player from the Merv Griffin show.

But is it Jack on this commercial?  His own website hasn’t been updated in years.  He is alive, but at 81 he might not be singing anymore or have the range he once had.

No, sorry it is not the original performer.

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