0:01

We're currently working on an episode about the late Bob Ross.

0:03

And I'd love to include your voice.

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If you have anything to share about how watching Bob Ross makes you feel specifically about the way he talks.

0:11

We'd like to hear that story in your own words, to send us a voice memo from your phone or a computer.

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Visit the web address, high dot Twenty k.org.

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Once it loads, just tap the microphone to start recording.

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And we might just use your story in the episode, Right?

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And each Episode the creator of an iconic work of art walks us through their journey on the crooked path to creation.

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There's no host and no interview.

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Stick around to the end of this podcast, to hear a preview of spark and fire and subscribe wherever you get your podcast, Right?

1:02

By this point, the McDonald's I'm loving at jingle has to be one of the most recognizable melodies in the world.

1:08

How many times do you think you've heard it?

1:10

Hundreds, thousands, You are listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz For nearly 20 years, the I'm loving it.

1:25

Melody has been used in almost every McDonald's commercial, but getting to those five notes took a long time.

1:32

McDonalds has always understood the power of a good jingle.

1:36

And over the years, they've had tons of them early on these often involved with their mascot, Ronald McDonald.

1:44

This is from their very first TV commercial back in 1963.

1:53

You're happy, Right? And here's a nice groovy version from 1970

2:09

By the mid eighties, it was a good time for a great taste

2:17

And does McDonald's expanded into other countries?

2:19

They made unique jingles for those places in the United Kingdom.

2:23

McDonald's made your day

2:30

In Germany. They were simply good In Brazil.

2:38

It was a delicious Moment.

2:48

At one point, they awarded free food to anyone who could recite their big max slogan in under four seconds.

2:54

You can say two, I'll be back seconds.

3:00

You can win a free cup of Coke.

3:02

It's that simple? Just say it's two, I'll be adding special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a Sesame seed bun.

3:09

And in the late eighties, they took things a step further with a million dollar menu song, which set the entire menu to music.

3:16

Yeah, a big deal to get a quarter pounder with some cheese Fischer, hamburger, cheeseburger, happy meal McNugget, Stacey golden for you In

3:23

Epic promotion, along the lines of Charlie and the chocolate factory.

3:26

McDonald's printed over 80 million copies of this song on the lightweight vinyl records and attach them to newspapers and magazines Naked

3:35

Jesus On

3:38

the one winning copy of the singers successfully made it through the entire menu, but on the losing copy's, the singers would make a mistake at some point in the song.

3:52

Oh, we're so sorry. The person listening to this record, didn't when the big prize tell him to check out those coupons and get him down here.

4:00

These over the top promotions and catchy jingles helped McDonald spread across the globe through the eighties and nineties, but by the early two thousands, the company was in trouble.

4:10

Their stock price was at a seven year low.

4:12

And for the first time in their history, they were losing money.

4:15

At the time, public opinion about fast food was changing.

4:19

Waistlines were expanding and healthier diets were becoming more popular by that point.

4:24

Some people had started to see Ronald McDonald, not as a sweet clown, but as a symbol of childhood obesity, Hamburgers,

4:32

French

4:32

fries,

4:32

they

4:32

look

4:32

delicious

4:40

And other people thought, but he was just plain creepy.

4:43

Right? I know you're not going to accept gifts from strangers either.

4:46

Like you. I know, thank you. You really, on a Ronald McDonald, McDonald's

4:55

decided it was time to throw out the book and do something totally different.

4:59

So

4:59

in

4:59

the

4:59

early

4:59

two

4:59

thousands,

4:59

McDonald's

4:59

launched

4:59

an

5:04

idea. Competition.

5:07

14 Different ad agencies from around the world were asked to pitch a game-changing idea that can rejuvenate McDonald's for the first time ever McDonald's would use the single winning idea all over the world.

5:19

They needed something special that would connect with people in every culture and every language in Germany and ad agency called high-end partner came up with the slogan which roughly translates to I'm loving the slogan was catchy, but the winning idea was supposed to include music in order to bring this slogan to life.

5:41

The agency reached out to a music production company called Mona Davis.

5:49

My name is Tom Batoy and my name is Franco Tortora and we founded Mona Davis around 30 years ago, this wasn't and Franco's first Encounter

5:58

with McDonald's a few years earlier, they'd been involved in a different McDonald's pitch, but it was rejected.

6:04

And we're so close.

6:07

I mean, we're so close by if you know, and at that point we said, my God, next time, we're going to win it.

6:15

So Tom and Franco set up to do what they do best making music that connects with people.

6:21

First of all, I'm, in my opinion, you don't think about it too much.

6:26

The more you think you can calculate, what moves people?

6:31

The more you are losing the emotion A

6:35

few years earlier, they learned this lesson the hard way We

6:39

had to develop an audio to Google for Siemens, and they wanted to use the fuel, not your number.

6:43

We had to do mathematically music.

6:45

And he, then it didn't really work out because it was like too constructed.

6:49

There was no soul in it With

6:52

McDonald's. They knew they needed something with soul.

6:55

And at the end we said, OK, it has to be something, really something which moves people up over touches people.

7:04

Tom and Franco I got to work putting the words McDonald's and I'm loving it to music came pretty easily, but they knew something was missing.

7:12

They needed a hook.

7:13

Then one night inspiration struck.

7:19

You have to know that it was like two 30, 3:00 AM in the morning.

7:22

So we were really, really tired.

7:24

We already had a lot of white wine in us.

7:26

We tried hummings and different kinds of singings and singalongs.

7:30

And then I think it was one of the creative directors who said, try something with a lab, whatever.

7:36

And we started to do that.

7:39

Yeah. And then somehow this melody came out That

7:41

at that And

7:43

they said, well, that's a pretty nice, and that was the point where we stopped a session because nobody could listen to anything anymore.

7:50

The next morning they listened to back starting with the last recording of the night.

7:54

As

7:54

soon

7:54

as

7:54

they

7:54

heard

7:54

it,

7:54

they

7:54

knew

7:54

they

7:54

had

7:54

found

7:54

a

8:01

winner. It was pretty clear because we heard that and said, well, that's good.

8:05

And the other ones were not competitive to that.

8:07

It wasn't a big, the science. It was basically more that you hear and you develop something and then emotionally to get grabbed, always with a lot of things, we do, you get emotionally grab by something and then you say, Oh, well, that's the thing.

8:23

So that's how it came to the Tom

8:30

and Franco believed they had found the winning melody, but they had to convince McDonalds.

8:34

Two part of the challenge was to show that this short, simple melody could work in every country and every possible musical style.

8:43

They were testing us. Of course. And they were like, okay, well, if there is the Olympic games, or if there is a country song, or if there is whatever it is, can we use that and implement it in all our musical work?

8:55

We do a world-wide that's what he had to prove.

8:57

Thankfully, the melody just worked with this melody.

9:01

You can do actually everything. And you can like transform it in a lot of different musical styles from Japanese singing to, like I said, the Olympic games we'll let the games to Mexican.

9:19

We

9:19

did

9:19

it

9:19

because

9:19

we

9:19

were

9:19

so

9:19

confident

9:19

that

9:19

it

9:19

will

9:19

work

9:27

everywhere. I mean, their tests is a really a lot, but we did it Tom

9:35

and Franco were at an advertising festival in France.

9:37

When they found out the big news, I'm loving, it had one, the idea competition, but instead of celebrating what the crowds around them, they hunkered down for days to hash out the deal.

9:48

It was the first week with Tom and I saw the sun only from inside of the hotels, from the outside, because we had to develop a long versions.

9:55

We had to develop a short versions.

9:56

We had to develop costs. We have meetings like all the time.

9:59

So we would just be sitting for a week in the air, conditioned rooms, developing the realization of this campaign worldwide.

10:08

It turned out, composing the music for I'm loving.

10:10

It was the easy part. Now they'd have to bring this jingle to 14 different countries.

10:16

They said, Oh, y'all can you really manage to produce all countries?

10:20

And so we were like, ah, right here we go.

10:26

What came next would be the most intense project of their careers.

10:29

Seven months, thousands of mixes, billions of listeners, and even some controversy with a few famous singers.

10:36

That's all coming up after the break.

10:39

Right?

10:44

Lets be honest right now is probably the worst time in history to have to stand in line at the post office.

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11:01

Then you can schedule a pickup or drop it off.

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Wherever is convenient for you at Twenty Thousand Hertz we've been using stamps.com for years, everything we ship goes through stamps.com.

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If you've ever gotten one of those super soft t-shirts, we shipped it using stamps.com.

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If you sign up now using the promo code to zero K you'll get a four week trial, free postage and a digital scale.

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There's no long-term contracts and you can cancel anytime, but I can tell you from personal experience, once you get used to it, you won't ever want to go back to try it out, go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the screen and type in our promo code to zero K.

11:44

Can you Graduations to Jared Ford Manson for getting last week's mystery sound right?

11:48

Since we had a bit of a break between episodes, we posted our last mystery sound on our, the sound we chose came from an old episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz And that sound came from Episode 31, the gift.

12:13

It was a re-creation of the first public wireless broadcast of the human voice.

12:18

It was transmitted to ships off the coast of new England on Christmas Eve in 1906 and a side note that singer was my wife And here's this episode's mystery sound.

12:31

If

12:31

you

12:31

know

12:31

that

12:31

sound,

12:31

tell

12:31

us

12:31

that

12:31

the

12:31

web

12:31

address,

12:31

mystery

12:31

dot

12:31

20

12:31

k.org,

12:31

we're

12:31

in

12:31

the

12:31

middle

12:31

of

12:31

redesigning

12:31

our

12:31

super

12:31

soft

12:47

t-shirts. So the winter we'll get a link to an ad free feed of the show.

12:50

And if you don't know the mystery sound, but still want that ad free feed visit Twenty k.org/donate.

13:00

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First terms and conditions apply, Right?

14:08

McDonalds has been using music to sell their brand since their very first TV commercial.

14:12

They've had some memorable songs And

14:20

That they've also had some not so memorable Songs.

14:32

These jingles helped to McDonald's become an international behemoth of fast food, but by 2002 business wasn't great.

14:39

Their stock price was falling and people were looking for healthier options.

14:43

As fortune magazine said that year quote, that good feeling has been Hamburglar to turn things around.

14:49

McDonald's launched massive campaign to find an idea that they can use, not just in the us, but all over the world.

14:56

The winning idea, combined to the phrase, I'm loving it with a catchy five note melody Up to this point, McDonald's had never done a fully global campaign before every country had their own marketing teams and agencies, and they were used to doing things their way, Tom.

15:15

And Franco had to get all of these teams on board with this new sound.

15:18

And as you might imagine, it didn't always go smoothly Right

15:24

at this huge meetings. And they had to tell them, you have to stop all of your work because for now on, this will be the thing that you have to incorporate and all your work.

15:34

You have to use this, no matter what we had to explain the guy's, how to use the music.

15:40

So two musicians tell thousands of creative directors and time director's what they should do like us.

15:47

They didn't like us.

15:49

Some of these countries were just getting their own campaigns off the ground.

15:53

And it was a really sad because that was like conscious.

15:55

They produce the first time you spots.

15:57

And then somebody says now get into the trash and France.

16:02

Also, they had made a whole new campaign with a whole new music that builds up at a national campaign and to have to break it.

16:08

And they were really frustrated.

16:12

The thing's only got more complicated from there with this new campaign, McDonald's wanted to do something completely different before they launched it as a jingle.

16:20

They wanted, I'm loving it to be a standalone hip hop.

16:23

Single. The idea was that people would develop a positive association with the song.

16:28

Then they'd be more receptive when they heard it in a commercial back then this kind of viral marketing was totally unheard of to help them do it.

16:37

Right. They turned to someone who knew the music industry inside and out.

16:40

The big break came from me.

16:43

What I was asked to work on McDonald's I'm

16:45

loving that Steve stout, Steve was in charge of pulling off this Trojan horse marketing strategy.

16:52

First, the song, then the ads through the nineties, Steve had been a successful record executive working with people like will Smith and nods.

17:00

He'd seen how culture and technology were changing advertising in a way that older agencies weren't keeping up with these clips came from a video podcast series out of Duke university called left of black.

17:13

They came from a generation where you could push culture down.

17:16

You can just force a message on you Back

17:19

when there were only three TV stations to choose from this one size fits all approach made more sense.

17:25

So when you go, you got three national networks.

17:27

You think its hard to force a message on people.

17:29

If you can just buy all three networks, you got them.

17:33

But then cable TV came along and then satellite and then the internet over the course of a few decades, we went from three channels to almost endless options.

17:42

Advertisers had to get more creative and Steve wanted to be the one to help them do it.

17:47

I'm going to be The

17:50

guy who translates.

17:51

What's taken place in culture and help you promote your brand.

17:57

So the consumer in a culturally authentic connective way, Using

18:05

his connections in the music industry, Steve started bringing rappers into the studio.

18:09

The first person they considered was pretty well And

18:13

they brought a very famous rip star in.

18:16

I can tell you the name really.

18:17

I mean, I would love to, but, but a famous rep star, This

18:22

particular rep star had a bit of a rebellious reputation, Some

18:26

problems involved in like drug using.

18:29

I have to sit here at the, you know what I mean for this rep's the arm.

18:33

Eventually McDonald's decided to go with someone a little more squeaky, clean Justin Timberlake at the time, Tom and Franco were pretty skeptical about that decision.

18:43

You all of us that, Oh, he can't rap.

18:45

He's a pop star.

18:46

We don't think he can rap.

18:48

I never heard him rapping Whether

18:50

or not he could wrap. And there was no doubt that Justin Timberlake can bring some serious StarPower to the unleavened.

18:56

A campaign on the track.

18:58

Justin was joined by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes together.

19:02

They got to work transforming this short audio logo into a four minute pop single Right

19:19

Before the new ads were scheduled to release the song mysteriously leaked online and started getting picked up by radio stations as intended.

19:27

There was no mention of McDonald anywhere in the song.

19:30

Instead it featured fairly generic romantic lyrics like this

19:46

After the song has started to circulate. McDonald's announced their partnership with Justin.

19:49

Of course, most of his fans had no idea that the song that had been hearing was conceived by McDonald's.

19:55

This Trojan horse strategy was already working by this point, Tom and Franco were completely exhausted.

20:07

It was seven months daily where you sleep about five hours.

20:12

You have conference calls, which take about 12 hours where you have a guy sitting beside you while you're sleeping, waking you up.

20:21

If the topic is interesting for you, it was crazy.

20:25

You have to understand its not just one thing for the whole world.

20:28

I know it's like thousands of things.

20:30

One of the world. I mean Just the mixing amount of the final versions.

20:33

When it came out with 3,700 mics, You

20:38

heard that right. 3000 to 700 final mixes.

20:42

After all that work, I'm loving, it was ready for the world.

20:48

In late 2003, McDonald's launched to the iPhone 11 at ad campaign.

20:52

The ads included Justin Timberlake, flirting on a rooftop breakdancers skateboarders surfers, BMX bikers, and a few cheeseburgers.

21:00

All of the commercials used a version of the Justin Timberlake songs with additional rap versus that varied by country in America.

21:08

The raps were performed by Pusha T and his brother nomad Move

21:17

your feet to the Beat hungry for the music you got to eat.

21:20

I'm loving It. Here's what it sounded like in Russia.

21:23

Here's

21:23

the

21:23

Spanish

21:31

version.

21:37

Here's the Bulgarian version Of

21:39

a loving it And

21:43

finally right after the ad campaign, the I'm loving it.

21:46

Single was officially released.

21:48

It reached the top 20 in many European countries and was a number one hit in Belgium in the U S it made it into the top 100 soon after Justin embarked on a sponsored two or of the U S and Europe called McDonald's presents Justin Timberlake.

22:02

Lovin it live after the campaign had launched Tom and Franco could finally take a break.

22:09

At that point. They were pretty sick of hearing that melody.

22:13

I slept for a week. And I think that was offered for a couple of weeks because I couldn't hear the melody anymore.

22:19

I couldn't hear it. The word McDonald's anymore.

22:21

So it was pretty hard.

22:23

I didn't speak for two weeks.

22:25

I didn't speak and to speak a lot.

22:29

If you surrounded with a melody for such a long time and with such intensity, you just want to get rid of that melody because it dominates your brain and wherever he is, something like that is like, Oh my God, you know,

22:52

It takes some time to recover.

22:53

It's true. It took me like two months or three months till I really was back in track and could be proud of it.

23:02

But all of that work paid off big time from McDonald's the M Lovin that campaign was originally scheduled to run for just two years now, almost two decades later, it's still going strong since it launched.

23:14

McDonalds has gone all in on this campaign to the point where they're paying superstars to record it.

23:20

There was this version by Destiny's child.

23:27

They've done one about the Travis Scott meal, Which

23:30

is $6. Say, go back to Jackson shoot, And

23:33

they've done the J Balvin Miele, The

23:35

J Bobbitt meal and learning based on me.

23:39

I'm low in it. And they've even licensed animated characters like donkey from Shrek, love, love in it.

23:46

And the minions over the years, this audio logo has also had its fair share of controversy in an interview with hot 97 radio station, Steve Stoute, credited Pusha T with creating I'm loving it.

24:03

You know, who did the wrote that push the te Pusha T wrote that, Oh wow.

24:06

That's crazy that push T wrote the song to McDonald's Well,

24:13

I'll push it to, you did have a verse on one of the first commercials.

24:15

His representative claimed that he wrote the entire song soon enough, that story started spreading through the media.

24:22

And when I heard that, I was like, what are you guys push it to?

24:27

You was basically a background singer in this crowd of Pharrell.

24:31

It got public very fast, especially in the net, but it's proven that we did it Nowadays.

24:39

Pusha T refuses to comment on the McDonald's jingle he's quote, eager to move on to new subjects for Tom and Franco this sort of thing was nothing new.

24:49

He was just not the one who claimed to be a composer.

24:52

I mean, we had to record cases because people were like accusing us.

24:56

That would be stolen in the middle of, and we won, of course everyone, but people think that they can make it a lot of money Despite

25:06

a reported $6 million payment for his involvement.

25:09

Justin Timberlake says he now regrets the deal in an interview with GQ.

25:13

Justin said that McDonald's stock quote went up by 25% when I walked into those offices and changed their image, Right?

25:26

For McDonald's I'm loving, it has been a huge commercial success.

25:29

It's one of the biggest, most successful marketing campaigns of all time.

25:34

It's up there with, Nike's just do it in Apple's think different McDonald's chief marketing officer.

25:40

When, as far as calling, I'm loving it a multi-billion dollar asset these days, you don't actually hear the words.

25:47

I'm loving it in McDonald's commercials.

25:48

As much as you used to.

25:50

Most of the time, you just hear those five iconic notes.

25:53

The melody really does work in every musical style and context for something that seems so simple.

26:01

It's brilliant. It's not just playing songs is not just the music it's that people get touched to the international language.

26:08

Music is about time and place and moods.

26:13

And so a lot of things come together to make music magic.

26:16

And you never can really say when the moment is Twenty

26:36

Thousand Hertz is hosted by me.

26:38

Dallas Taylor and produced out of the sound design studios of defacto sound for some Sonic inspiration Follow defacto sound on Instagram or Visit defacto sound right.com.

26:48

This episode was written and produced by Fran board and me Dallas Taylor with help from Sam snidely.

26:55

It was story edited by Casey Emerling.

26:57

It was edited and sound design by Soren bacon and Colin DeVarney Thanks

27:03

to our guests. Tom Batoy and Franco Tortora from the Moana Davis music production company, or you can learn more about their work at Mona Davis dot com.

27:11

What jingle do you think Twenty Thousand Hertz should cover next.

27:15

You can tell us on Facebook, Twitter on our subreddit or by writing.

27:19

[email protected].

27:19

Thanks

27:19

for

27:22

listening.

27:28

Right? Every creative work you've ever loved has a hero's journey behind it.

27:33

Whether it's a book or a building, a movie or a musical, it starts with a spark for the first spark probably happened before I was born.

27:43

Yo-yo ma on the silk road project on the new podcast, spark and fire you'll hear for the first time ever, what was happening in the mind of a creator as they brought their iconic work to life.

27:56

You're going to Be 10 days in this space will give you a piece Of

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a choreographer bill T Jones.

28:03

And you know what we did, I'm June Cohen co-founder of wait, what?

28:07

A former executive producer of Ted and your host for spark and fire.

28:11

But these aren't interviews they're stories told entirely in the words of iconic creators, I was revved up excited, thrilled that's journalist Susan Arlene on the orchid thief.

28:26

My brain was on fire spark and fire.

28:31

Let these Epic stories spark your own creative journey.

28:35

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on spark and fire.com, Right?

28:43

Yeah. I know I've told you this before, but making Twenty Thousand Hertz cost a lot of money.

28:48

When you consider all of the time we spend on research interviews, writing artwork, sound design, and mixing, it adds up really fast.

28:55

Now advertising is crucial for us, but advertising money, doesn't pay all the bills.

29:00

That's why I'm asking you.

29:02

If this show is really important to you, consider setting up a monthly donation for just $4 a month or roughly $2 an episode, you can help us make sure we can continue to blast out how cool sound and hearing is in return.

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29:18

So you'll never hear me doing this again.

29:20

At the time of me recording this, we have a total of 639 people who support this show, which has a little over 0.5% of our audience.

29:29

We would love to make that and even 1% or 1000 people, if you'd like to be a part of the 20 K 1% visit Twenty k.org/donate, or the link in the show description.

29:41

Now, if you can't afford it, no problem.

29:44

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In that case, you can help us out a ton by recommending the show to someone, you know, or by leaving a five-star rating on Apple podcasts.

29:53

Thanks, You know, We're currently working on an episode about the late Bob Ross, and I'd love to include your voice. If you have anything to share about how watching Bob Burras makes you feel, specifically about the way he talks, we'd like to hear that story in your own words. To send us a voice memo from your phone or composers. Visit the web address high dot twenty k dot org. Once it loads, just tap the microphone to start recording, and we might just use your story in the episode. Sparken Fire is a new podcast I think you'll love. In each episode, the creator of an iconic work of art walks us through their journey on the crooked path to creation. It could be the author of a bestselling book, the director of a famous Lovin, or even the architect of an amazing building. There's no host and no interview. It's just the creator sharing their process in their own words. Stick around to the end of this podcast to hear a preview of Spark and Fire and Sub scribe wherever you get your podcasts. By this point, The McDonalds, I'm loving it jingle, has to be one of the most recognizable melodies in the world. How many times do you think you've heard it? Hundreds, thousands, You're listening to twenty thousand hertz. For nearly twenty years, the Im Lovin' melody has been used in almost every McDonald's commercial. But getting to those five notes, took a long time. McDonald's has always understood the power of a good jingle. And over the years, they've had tons of them. Early on, these often involved their mascot, Ronald McDonalds. This is from their very first TV commercial back in nineteen sixty three. You're happy, Right? And here's a nice groovy version from 1970 here's a nice groovy version from nineteen seventy. They're thick of shape potatoes. You even find a french fry. By the mid eighties, it was a good time for a great taste. And as McDonald's expanded into other countries, they made unique jingles for those places. Im the United Kingdom, McDonald's made your day. In Germany, they were simply good. In Brazil, it was a delicious moment. At one point, they awarded free food to anyone who could recite their Big Mac slogan in under four seconds. If you can say, In four seconds, you can win a free cup of Coke. It's that simple? Just say it's two, I'll be adding special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a Sesame seed Just say. It's too old with Patty's special sauce letters cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun. In the late eighties, they took things a step further with the million dollar minu song. Which set the entire menu to music. Here it goes. Big Mythic DLT a quarter pounder with some cheese fillet aficionado hamburger, a happy meal, In an epic promotion, along the lines of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, McDonald's printed over eighty million copies of this song on lightweight vinyl records. And attach them to newspapers and magazines. Naked Jesus On the one winning copy, the singers successfully made it through the entire menu. But on the losing copies, The singers would make a mistake at some point in the song. Oh, we're so so sorry. The person listening to this record didn't win the big prize, but tell Im to check out those coupons and get here. These over the top promotions and catchy jingles helped McDonalds spread across the globe through the eighties and nineties. But by the early two thousands, the company was in trouble. Their stock price was at a seven year for the first time in their history, they were losing money. At the time, public opinion about fast food was changing. Wastelines were expanding and healthier diets were becoming more popular. By that point, some people had started to see Ronald McDonalds as a sweet clown, but as a symbol of childhood obesity. McDonald's hamburgers? And some french fries. Don't they look delicious? And some other people thought that he was just plain creepy. Right? I know you're not going to accept gifts from strangers I know. You're not close to accept. Get some strangers either. But you know stranger. You really are Ronald McDonalds. McDonalds decided it was time to throw out the book and do something totally different. Lovin the early two thousands, McDonald's launched an idea competition. Fourteen Different ad agencies from around the world were asked to pitch a game-changing idea that can rejuvenate McDonald's for the first time ever McDonald's would use the single winning idea all over the ad agencies from around the world were asked to pitch a game changing idea that could rejuvenate McDonald's. For the first time ever, McDonald's would use the single winning idea all over the world. They needed something special that would connect with people in every culture and every language. In Germany, an ad agency called high end partner came up with the slogan Which roughly translates to, I'm loving it. The slogan was catchy, but the winning idea was supposed to include music. In order to bring this slogan to life, the agency reached out to a music production company called Mona Davis. My name is Tom Batoy, and my name is Franco And we founded Monodavis around thirty years ago, This wasn't Tom and Franco's first encounter with McDonald's. A few years earlier, they'd been involved in a different McDonald's pitch, but it was rejected. We're so close. I mean, we're so close, but we lost it. And at that point, we said, my god, Next time we're gonna win it. So Tom and Franco set out to do what they do best, making music that connects with people. First of all, in my You don't think about it too much. The more you think you can calculate what moves people the more you're losing the emotion. A few years earlier, they learned this lesson the hard way. We had to develop an audio look for Siemens and they wanted to use the Fibonacci number. We had to do mathematical music And at the end, it didn't really work out because it was like too constructed. There was no soul in it. With McDonald's, they knew they needed something with soul. In the end, we said, okay, it has to be something really Im, something which moves people or Im touches people. Tom and Franco got to work. Putting the words McDonald's and I'm loving it to music came pretty easily, but they knew something was missing. They needed a hook Then one night, inspiration struck. You have to know that it was like two thirty three AM in the morning, so we were really, really tired. We already had a lot of white wine in us. We tried humming and different kinds of singing and sing alongs and then think it was one of the creative directors who said, try something with blah blah blah blah blah blah whatever, and we started to do that. Yeah. And then somehow this melody came out. That at that And I said, well, that's pretty nice. And that was the point where we stopped this session because nobody could listen to anything anymore. The next morning, they listened Batoy, starting with the last recording of the night. As soon as they heard it, they knew they had found a winner. It was pretty clear because we heard that and said, wow. That's good. And the other ones were not competitive to that. It wasn't big science. It was basically more that you hear and you develop something and then emotionally get grabbed always with a lot of things we do. We get emotionally grabbed by something and then we say, oh, that's the thing. So that's how it came to the blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Tom and Franco believed they had found the winning melodies, but they had to convince McDonald's too. Part of the challenge was to show that this short simple melody could work in every country and every possible musical style. They were testing us, of course, and they were like, Okay. Well, if there's Olympic Games or if there's a country song or if there's whatever it is, can we use that and implement it in all our musical work we do worldwide. That's what we had to prove. Thankfully, the melody just worked. With this melody, you can do actually everything and you can like transform it in a lot of different musical styles from Japanese singing. To like I said, Olympic Games. We all make the games. To Mexican. We did it because we were so confident that it will work everywhere Im they're tested really a lot, but we did it. Tom and Franco were at an advertising festival in and Franco were at an advertising festival in France when they found out the big news. I'm loving it, had won the idea competition. But instead of celebrating with the crowds around them, they hunker down for days to hash out the deal. Im was the first week where Tom and I saw the sun only from inside of the hotels, not from the outside because we had to develop long versions. We had to develop short versions. Had to develop costs. We had meetings like all the time. So we were just sitting for a week in air conditioned rooms, developing the realization of this campaign worldwide? It turned out, composing the music for I'm turned out composers the music for Im loving it was the easy part. Now they'd have to bring this jingle to fourteen different countries. They said, oh, yeah. Can you really manage to produce all countries? And so we were like, alright. Here we go. What came next would be the most intense project of their careers, seven months, thousands of mixes, billions of listeners, and even some traversy with a few famous singers. That's all coming up after the break. Lets be honest right now is probably the worst time in history to have to stand in line at the post be honest, right now is probably the worst time in history to have to stand in line at the post office. That's why I highly recommend trying out stamps.com a website that lets you mail and ship right from your That's why I highly recommend trying out stamps dot com, a website that lets you mail and ship right from your computer. It's super simple. You just log in, put in your package info and print out the You just log in, put in your package info and print out the postage. Then you can schedule a pickup or drop it Then you can schedule a pick up or drop it off. Wherever is convenient for you at Twenty Thousand Hertz we've been using stamps.com for years, everything we ship goes through wherever is convenient for you. At twenty thousand hertz, we've been using stamps dot com for years. Everything we ship goes through Stampscom dot com. If you've ever gotten one of those super soft t shirts, we shipped it using stamps dot com. If you sign up now using the promo code 20K, you'll get a four week trial, free postage, and a digital scale. There's no long-term contracts and you can cancel anytime, but I can tell you from personal experience, once you get used to it, you won't ever want to go back to try it out, go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the screen and type in our promo code to zero There's no long term contracts and you can cancel anytime. But I can tell you from personal experience, once you get used to it, you won't ever want to go back. To try it go to stamps dot com, click on the microphone at the top of the screen and type in our promo code K. Congratulations to Jared Ford Manson for getting last week's mystery sound right. Since we had a bit of a break between episodes, we posted our last mystery sound on our socials. The sound we chose came from an old episode of twenty thousand Hertz. That sound came from episode thirty one, The Gift. It was a recreation of the first public wireless broadcast of the Human Voice. It was transmitted to ships off the coast of New England on Christmas Eve in nineteen o six. And a side note, that singer was my wife. And here's this episode's If you know that sound, tell us at the web address mystery dot twenty k dot org. We're in the middle of redesigning our super soft t shirts, so the winner will get link to an ad free feed of the show. And if you don't know the mystery sound, but still want that ad free feed, visit twenty k dot org slash donate. If If you're someone who hires and you're not using indeed, then you're really missing you're someone who hires, then you're not using Indeed, then you're really missing out. Indeed. Make sure that your job listing shows up in front of the best make sure that your job listing shows up in front of the best candidates. In fact, according to Talent Nest, Indeed delivers four times more hires than all other job sites combined. These days, indeed has a new feature called Instant match. And as you can probably guess from the name of instant match searches through millions of resumes to show you great candidates right away with instant match, over 80% of employers get quality and as you probably guess from the name, Instant Match searches through millions of resumes to show you great candidates right away. With Instant Match, over eighty percent of employer get quality candidates as soon as they upgrade their job post. Forget waiting around while the resumes trickle Im, indeed makes higher being fast and simple. Right now, our listeners can get a free seventy five dollar credit to upgrade a job post by going to indeed dot com slash Hertz. This is the best offer indeed has right This is the best offer indeed has right now. So you don't want to miss It to clean your so you don't want to miss it. To claim your credit, visit indeed dot com slash That's HERTZ. This offer is valid through March thirty first. Terms and conditions apply. Right? has been using music to sell their brand since their very first TV commercial. They've had some memorable songs. And they've also had some not so memorable songs. Fingers and butt. Fingers and butt. You know the one. These jingles helped McDonald's become an international behemoth of fast food. Batoy two thousand two, business wasn't great. Their stock price was falling and people were looking for healthier options. As fortune magazine said that year, quote, That good feeling has been hamburglar ed. To turn things around, McDonald's launched a massive campaign to find an idea that they could use not just in the US but all over the world. The winning idea combined with the phrase I'm loving it with a catchy five note melody. Up to this point, McDonald's had never done a fully global campaign before. Every country had their own marketing teams and agencies, and they were used to doing things their way. Tom and Franco had to get all of these teams on board with this new sound. And as you might imagine, it didn't always go smoothly. They're at this huge meetings and they have tell them you have to stop all your work. Because from now on, this will be the thing you have to incorporate in all your work. You have to use this no matter what. 4week had to explain the guys how to use the music, so two musicians tell thousands of creative directors and time directors what they should do. No. They didn't like us. They didn't like us. Some of these countries were just getting their own campaigns off ground. And it was a really sad because that was like was very sad because they were like countries. They produced their first TV spots. And then somebody says now get into the trash. At France, also they had made a whole new campaign with a whole new music. They built up a national campaign and had to break Im, and they were really for rated. Things only got more complicated from there. With this new campaign, McDonald's wanted to do something completely different. Before they launched it as jingle, they wanted I'm loving it to be a standalone hip hop single. The idea was that people would develop a positive association with the song. Then they'd be more receptive when they heard it in commercial. Back then, this kind of viral marketing was totally unheard of, To help them do it right, they turned to someone who knew the music industry inside and out. The big break came to me What I was asked to work on McDonald's I was asked to work one I'm loving that Steve stout, Steve was in charge of pulling off this Trojan horse marketing I love it. That's Steve Stout. Steve was in charge of pulling off this Trojan horse marketing strategy. First, the song, then the ads. Through the nineties, Steve had been a successful record executive, working with people like Will Smith and Noz. He'd seen how culture and technology were changing advertising in a way that older agencies weren't keeping up with. These clips came from a video podcast series out of Duke University called Left of Black. They came from a generation where you could push culture came from a generation where you could push culture down. You could just force a message on you. Back when there were only three TV stations to choose from, this one size fits all approach made more sense. So when you go, you got three national you got three national networks, you think it's hard to force message on people. If you just buy all three networks, you got them. But then cable TV came along and then satellite and then the internet over the course of a few decades, we went from three channels to almost endless then cable TV came along and then satellite and then the Internet. Over the course of a few decades, we went from three channels to almost endless options. Advertisers had to get more creative and Steve wanted to be the one to help them do it. I'm going to be the guy who translates what's taking place in culture and help you promote your brand to the consumer in a culturally authentic, connective way. Using his connections in the music industry, Steve started bringing rappers into the studio. The first person they considered was pretty well known. And they brought a very famous reps star Im. I can't tell you the name really. I mean, I would love to, but very famous rep star. This per particular rap star had a bit of a rebellious reputation. It was some problems involved in, like, drug using. I have to say you know. I mean, for this rap arm. Eventually, McDonald's decided to go with someone a little more squeaky clean, Justin Timberlake. At the time, Tom and Franco were pretty aptical about that decision. 4week always said, oh, he can't wrap. He's a pop star. We don't think he can wrap. I never heard him wrapping. Whether or not he could wrap, there was no doubt that Justin Timberlake could bring some serious star power to the Lovin' campaign. On the track, Justin was joined by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptune's. Together, they got to work transforming this short audio logo into a four minute pop single. Months Before the new ads were scheduled to release the song mysteriously leaked online and started getting picked up by radio stations as the new ads were scheduled to release, The song mysteriously leaked online and started getting picked up by radio stations. As intended, there was no mention of McDonald's anywhere in the song. Instead, it featured fairly generic, romantic lyrics like this. After the song had started to circulate, McDonalds announced their partnership with Justin. Of course, most of his fans had no idea that the song they had been hearing was conceived by McDonald's. This Trojan horse strategy was already working. By this point, Tom and Franco were completely exhausted. It was seven months daily where you sleep about five was seven month daily where you sleep about five hours. You have conference calls, which take about twelve hours where you have a guy sitting beside you while you're sleeping, waking you up, Im the topic is interesting for you. It was crazy. You have to understand it's not just one thing for the whole world. No. It's like thousands of things. One of the worldwide. I mean, just the mixing amount, the final versions when it came out were three thousand seven hundred mixes. You heard that heard that right. Three thousand seven hundred final mixes. After all that work, I'm loving it, was ready for the world. Im late two thousand three, McDonald's launched the I'm Lovin' it ad campaign. The ads included Justin Timberlake flirting on a rooftop, break down scapers, skateboarders, surfers, BMX Bikers, and a few cheeseburgers. All of the commercials used a version of the Justin Timberlake song with additional rap verses that varied by country. In America, the rap were performed by Pasha t and his brother, No malice. Movie feet. Watch to the bee, hungry for the music. Got eat. Here's what it sounded like in Russia. Here's the Spanish version. And here's the Bulgarian version. I'm loving it. And finally right after the ad campaign, the I'm loving Finally, right after the ad campaign, the Im Lovin' it single was officially released. It reached the top twenty in many European countries and was a number one hit in Belgium. In the US, it made it into the top one hundred. Soon after, Justin embarked on a sponsored tour of the US and Europe called McDonald's Presence. Justin Timberlake, Lovin' It Live. After the campaign had launched, Tom and Franco could finally take a break. At that point, they were pretty sick of hearing that melody. I slept for week and I think I was off for a couple of weeks because couldn't hear the melody anymore. I couldn't hear the word McDonald's anymore. So it was pretty hard. I didn't speak for two weeks. I didn't speak. And speak a lot. If you are surrounded with Melodies for such a long time and with such intensity, you just wanna get rid of that melody because it dominates your brain. And wherever you hear something like that, it's like, oh, got that one. It takes some time to takes some time to recover. That's true. It took me, like, two months or three months till I really was back in track and I could be proud of it. But all of that work paid off big time from McDonald's the M Lovin that campaign was originally scheduled to run for just two years now, almost two decades later, it's still going strong since it all of that work paid off big time for McDonald's. The omnivinate campaign was originally scheduled to run for just two years. Now almost two decades later, it's still going strong. Since it launched, McDonald's has gone all in on this campaign. To the point where they're paying superstars to record it, there was this version by Destiny's child. They've done one about the Travis Scott Mule. Travis Scott Mule. Which is six dollars. Say hi to Jackson. And they've done the j Lovin meal. It's a jibbal with meal. Get it off the McDonald's app and do my glory. me. I'm low in I'm loving it. They've even licensed animated characters like donkey from Shrek. Love it. And the minions. Over the years, this audio logo has also had its fair share of controversy. In an interview with Hot ninety seven Radio Station, Steve Stout credited push a t with creating. I'm loving it. You know, who did the wrote that push the te Pusha T wrote that, Oh know who did the road that? Push a t. Push a t road that. Oh, wow. That's crazy. That Pasha T wrote the song to While Pasha T did have a verse on one of the first commercial his representative claimed that he wrote the entire song. Soon enough, that story started spreading through the media. When I heard that, I was like, what? Because Pasha t was basically a background singer in this crowd of Pharrell. Im got public very fast, especially Internet, but it's proven that we did Im. Nowadays, Pasha t refuses to comment on the McDonald's jingle. He's, quote, eager to move on to new subjects. For Tom Franco, this sort of thing was nothing new. He was just another one who claimed to be the composer. mean, we had court cases because people were like accusing us that we stole the melodies. we won, of course, everyone, but people think they can make a lot of money. Despite a reported six million dollar payment for his involvement, Justin Timberlake says he now regrets the deal. In an interview with GQ, Justin said that McDonald's stock, quote, went up by twenty five percent when I walked into those offices and changed their image. For McDonald's, I'm Lovin' has been a huge commercial success. It's one of the biggest, most successful marketing campaigns of all time. It's up there with Nike's just do it and Apple's think different. McDonald's chief marketing officer, when as far as calling Im loving it, a multibillion dollar asset. These days, you don't actually hear the words I'm loving it in McDonald's commercials as much as you used to. Most of the time, you just hear those five iconic notes. The melody really does work in every musical style and context for something that seems so simple. It's brilliant. It's such as playing size. It's such as playing music. It's that people get touched. It's an international language. Music is about time and place and moods, and so a lot of things come together to make music magic and you never can really say when the moment is. Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by thousand Hertz is hosted by me, Dallas Taylor, and produced out of the sound design studios of de facto sound. For some sonic inspiration, follow defacto sound on Instagram or visit defacto sound dot com. This episode was written and produced by Franboard. And me, Dallas Taylor. With help from Sam Sneebly. It was story edited by Casey Emerling. It was edited and sound designed by SOAR in Beijing. And Lovin DeVarney. Thanks to our to our guests, Tom Batoy and Tortora from the Mona Davis music production company You can learn more about their work at mona davis dot com. What jingle do you think twenty thousand hertz should cover next? You can tell us on Facebook Twitter on our subreddit or by writing hi at twenty k dot org. Thanks for listening. Right? Every creative work you've ever loved has a hero's journey behind Im, whether it's a book or a building a movie or a musical, it starts with a spark. The first spark probably happened before I was bored. Yo Yo Ma, on the Silk Road Project. On the new podcast, Spark and Fire, you'll hear for the first time ever What was happening in the mind of a creator as they brought their iconic work to life? If you give Be 10 days in this space will give you a piece ten days in the space, we'll give you a peace. Of a choreographer bill T Bill t Jones. And you know what? We did. I'm June Cohen, co founder of Weight Wat former executive producer of Ted and your host for Spark and Fire. But these aren't interviews. They're stories. Told entirely in the words of iconic creators. I was revved up, excited, thrilled. That's journalist Susan Orlean. On the Orchid teeth. My brain was on fire. Spark and fire. Let these epic stories spark your own creative journey. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on spark and fire dot com. Yeah. I know I've told you this before, but making Twenty Thousand Hertz cost a lot of know I've told you this before, but making twenty thousand hertz costs a lot of money. When you consider all of the time we spend on research, interviews, writing, artwork, sound design, and mixing, it adds up really fast. Now, advertising is crucial for us. Advertising money doesn't pay all the bills. That's why I'm asking you, Im this show is really important to you consider setting up a monthly donation for just four dollars a month or roughly two dollars an episode. You can help us make sure we can continue to blast out how cool sound and hearing is. In return, you'll get immediate acts this to our ad free feed, so you'll never hear me doing this again. At the time of me recording this, we have a total of six hundred and thirty nine people who support this Show, which is a little over point five percent of our audience. We would love to make that an even one percent or one thousand people. If you'd like to be a part of the twenty k one percent, visit twenty k dot orgdonate or tap the link in the show description. Now Im you can't afford it, no problem. I want this show to remain free for you. In that case, you can help us out a ton by recommending the show to someone you know or by leaving a five star rating on Apple podcasts. Thanks.