The Oldies Are Goodies Again

Advertisers are bringing back music from hit TV shows of the 1960s and ‘70s to give their products a contemporary feel.

America Online, in spots from TBWA Chiat/Day, uses the score from the cartoon series “The Jetsons.” Levi Strauss & Co. plays the “Partridge Family” hit “I Think I Love You” in a spot created by Foote, Cone & Belding in San Francisco.

Ford Motor Co. uses the theme from “Green Acres” in spots for its Pathfinder truck. MCI Corp., as part of a promotional deal with Paramount Pictures Corp., is using the “Brady Bunch” melody in commercials for its collect-calling service.

Advertisers say the music appeals to a broad audience, in part because so many old shows have lived on in reruns, contributing to the current revival of 1970s fads.

“It reaches baby boomers by evoking teen and childhood memories, and reaches a younger generation because the ‘70s and retro fashion are hip right now,” said Maureen Thompson, executive producer at Santa Monica-based Cyberia. The commercial music house composed a score inspired by ‘70s detective show themes for a new Mountain Dew commercial featuring film star Jackie Chan.

Marketers say a pitfall in using familiar scores is that the music can overshadow the product. MCI tried to avoid that problem by writing new words to the “Brady Bunch” theme song and by replacing the TV family with professional football players led by Kyle Brady of the New York Jets.

Teaming athletes with a “Brady Bunch” theme allowed MCI to reach sports fans as well as young adults who are into ‘70s style, said MCI Marketing Director Patty Proferes.

“Brady was the linchpin,” said Dan O’Donnell, account director at MCI’s agency, Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/ Euro RSCG. “The spot would not have worked as well without him.”

The ads were tied to Paramount’s release of “The Very Brady Sequel.”

In the Levi Strauss spot, the “Partridge Family” hit is used as background music as a man and a woman who are total strangers fantasize about a life together during an elevator ride.

Besides tapping into memories of the sitcom, the music helps Levi make a fashion statement about its wide-leg jeans, said Foote, Cone & Belding Senior Vice President Chuck McBride.

Super Bowl Bet: Probably the smallest advertiser in the Super Bowl telecast this year is Auto-by-Tel, an upstart car-buying service.

The Irvine-based company, which links car buyers and sellers via the Internet, is spending more than $1.5 million to produce and air a 30-second commercial during the second quarter of the game Jan. 26.

The animated spot, created by RBI Advertising of Hollywood, pans from a desolate landscape to a rosier world meant to represent a new dawn in car buying. Sacramento-based Packard Bell has been using a similar theme in its “Go Home” campaign, in which home computer users escape a dreary world of banks and public libraries.

By advertising during the most-watched TV event of the year, Auto-by-Tel is taking a gamble. Because the Super Bowl audience is so diverse, the slot is attractive to mass-market advertisers--companies that sell beer, soft drinks, snack foods and sneakers. Fewer than one in five adults uses online services such as Auto-by-Tel.

Auto-by-Tel founder Pete Ellis said the money being spent on Super Bowl advertising isn’t being wasted.

“We’re trying to create tremendous awareness out there,” Ellis said.

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Denise Gellene can be reached by fax at (213) 237-7837 or via e-mail at denise.gellene@latimes.com