Back in the mid-nineties, Richard Branson was in his forties and decided to take on Coke- as in, Coca Cola. Long Haymes Carr got the creative task of helping him roll out Virgin Cola in the States. They knew they couldn’t compete with Coke’s media dollars. So they focused on niche radio and grassroots distribution. I wrote and produced the theme music for the campaign, a little song called Virgin puts the Voom in your VaVa.
Years later a marketing textbook would call out the campaign as an example product differentiation. The authors say, “We’re not sure what that means, but it does get your attention.” Well, I won’t blame the jingle for the eventual demise of Virgin Cola. Coke really just cock blocked them when it came to shelf space. I’m not sure what the textbook authors were trying to demonstrate with this image. It was definitely not part of the Virgin campaign. But, like my lyrics, I’m not sure what it means, but it does get my attention.
We ended up producing the song in four different genres: alternative, country, hip hop, and pop. One sounded like Cake, another like Devo.