When it's campaign season, there's only one kind of soundtrack that fills the air wherever you go.

You can be sure to hear political jingles everywhere in the months leading up to election day. It's just like Christmas in the Philippines, with no fail, to hear the same catchy, bouncy, and repetitive (sometimes annoying and obnoxious) songs over and over. Other times you might even hear your favourite pop songs reworked as campaign jingles (with or without the artist's permission, yikes).

From sorties, motorcades, to YouTube ads, there's almost no escaping them in this country. 

These jingles usually offer the same promise: to end corruption, help the poor, and bring brighter tomorrows to the people. While the candidate's name and platform tell us what we need to know, it's the jingle's effectiveness that gets stuck in your head rent-free.

Ahead of the upcoming national and local elections this 9 May, Bandwagon caught up with music composer and Wonder Collab Studios Managing Partner Kahlil Refuerzo to talk about the work that goes into political jingles, its importance to the overall campaign, and what it's like composing original music versus using novelty songs.

What makes an effective political jingle and what kind of elements does it need to be a good one?

To me, an effective political jingle has to be catchy, not too wordy, and has to have a lot of repetition of the candidate’s name.

The catchiness of course is a must for every jingle—LSS can help greatly, but if the jingle catches one’s attention and makes one remember the candidate, it has done its job. Not being too wordy is important because one cannot put too much information in a jingle.

This brings me to the third point—the repetition of the candidate’s name. All too often we hear so many jingles that go on and on with so many lyrics, it takes so long before the candidate’s name is mentioned, and then quite a while longer before it is repeated. One ends up forgetting who the jingle is promoting. This is especially important for campaign vehicles that rove around neighbourhoods with loudspeakers. The candidate’s name should be heard in every house that the car passes by.

How do you find the balance between the music and the message of those running to be clear in their campaign jingles?

An excellently produced campaign jingle is one that makes the listener recall the candidate’s name and has a clear message regardless of how excellent or mediocre the music seems to be. 

What are the biggest challenges you face in creating these political jingles?

The single biggest challenge is when a politician you don’t like or believe in engages your services. Each person has their own convictions on this, and I respect that.  

How important do you think political jingles are in the overall campaign of a candidate?

Music in itself inspires, uplifts, and triggers feelings. It also helps with name recall. Use that as a tool in a political campaign and you have something that can help energize a rally, inspire followers to promote the candidate and keep the candidate’s name in the voter’s mind until he enters the polling precinct.

Are you given creative freedom to write and arrange the music for these campaign jingles?

Local candidates give us more freedom to write and choose what kind of music to use. National candidates employ advertising agencies, so the creative process is pretty much like doing jingles for commercial products - copy is already written and music pegs are given. There are of course opportunities to collaborate with the creatives, but the major direction comes from the agency, and we, for the most part just implement their ideas.

A lot of political jingles borrow melodies and lyrics from novelty songs. Tell us, as a music composer, how does this affect your creative process?

While composing an all-original, “serious” jingle fulfils the composer creatively, using novelty songs can immediately address catchiness and LSS. I’m an eye-on-the-prize kind of jingle composer. If the jingle sticks, it doesn’t matter to me if it comes from a novelty song. Almost no music is beneath me when I do jingles. If it will help sell, I’m gonna do it.

When working on jingles that don't lean toward novelty songs or repetitiveness, how do you make sure these songs stick in the minds of voters?

Thankfully, this hasn’t happened, but if it does, I would immediately ask the ad agency or the campaign people if I can repeat some parts, especially the candidate’s name. It’s my job to make the jingle stick, and repetition is one of the most important ways to do so. If they don’t budge, I’ll give them what they want. And hope for the best.

Some political jingles also involve artists from the local music scene. What is it like working with them on these kinds of projects?

I worked with a major pop star for a campaign jingle some years back. It was very professional, so there were really no challenges. We were both paid to do a job, and we worked the best we could. I’ve also worked with a celebrity who wasn’t paid to endorse the candidate—it was purely a passion project for him. It was also a breeze, because he genuinely believed in the candidate, and was willing to do everything needed to be done. Thankfully, I haven’t had any experiences with prima donnas for political jingles. 

Is making music for political parties any different from making music for your everyday TV and radio ads?

As I mentioned earlier, candidates running for national office employ advertising agencies so the process and creativity are pretty much the same with everyday ads.

The one thing that differs is the timetable—political commercials have a really quick turnover—from storyboard/lyrics to airing in about a week. Jingles need to be produced overnight, but revisions are not too many. It is also good for businesses because they pay faster than usual ad clients. 

The national and local elections are happening on 9 May. Find your voting precinct here.

Bandwagon does not endorse or recommend any particular candidate or political sentiment involved in the 2022 Philippine general election.