I paid off my USAA credit card over the weekend.

As I logged into the website, I subconsciously found myself muttering the iconic, chant-like jingle I hear so often in the commercials "U-S-A-A."

The fact that I sang along subconsciously is a testament -- I think -- to the effectiveness of jingles. Think about how many commercials or brands you remember -- whether you shop them or like them or not -- because of their jingles! I don't like Folgers coffee, but I'll never forget their sing-song slogan "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup!"

According to Quality Logo Products, jingles have been a part of American culture for nearly 100 years. The first ever radio commercial jingle, according to Smithsonian, was for Wheaties and aired on Christmas Eve 1926. Over the decades, the use of jingles in advertising has ebbed and flowed; the Atlantic even went so far as to claim in 2016 that the jingle was dead. A recent survey by Quality Logo Products, however, proves that jingles may not have exhausted their usefulness yet!

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Surveying 735 U.S. residents, Quality Logo Products ranked 67 advertising melodies from most-recognizable to least. Here are some highlights of the survey:

  • “Nationwide is on your side” was the best-known jingle, recognized by 92.6% of survey respondents. It was followed closely by McDonald’s “Ba-da-ba-ba-baaa… I’m lovin’ it” and the canyon-crossing cry of “Ricola!”
  • The top 10 most recognizable jingles are all attached to brands between 50 and 100 years old. Five of those jingles themselves reach back to the 1960s.
  • Insurance firm jingles were immediately known to roughly half the survey’s respondents. All four insurance jingles — Nationwide, State Farm, Farmers, and Liberty Mutual — placed in the top third of the pack for recognizability.
  • The Folgers coffee jingle placed second in the most likeable and catchiest categories, and near the top for recognizability, as well.
  • Chili’s “baby back ribs” ditty won the title for catchiest jingle. Following in second and third place were Folgers’ timeless rhyme and the über-simple Ricola yodel.
  • The repetitive jingle for Liberty Mutual tops both the most hated and the most annoying lists — but it also lands in the top 10 for catchiest.
  • The jingle for Sara Lee is by far the most commonly misheard, with 74.6% of people thinking the lyrics are, “Nobody does it like Sara Lee.” (The actual lyrics are "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.")

Here are the top 10 catchiest jingles of all time according to Quality Logo Product's survey:

1. Chili's: "I want my baby back baby back baby back..."
2. Folgers: "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup."
3. Ricola: "Riiiiicolaaa!"
4. Maybelline: "Maybe she's born with it...maybe it's Maybelline."
5. Chia Pet: "Ch-ch-ch-chia!"
6. Ace Hardware: "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man."
7. Klondike: "What would you do-oooo for a Klondike Bar?"
8. Campbell's: "Uh-oh! Spaghetti-O's!"
9. Kit Kat: "Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!"
10. Liberty Mutual: "Liberty, Liberty, Liberty...Liberty!"

See the list of most hated and most annoying jingles as well as the full list of al 67 jingles reviewed here.

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