As lightning flashed to the right of the plane, and the clouds parted to reveal the dark waters of Lake Geneva a few thousand feet below, a familiar musical riff popped uninvited into my head: Da da da, da da da nah.
And so it was, as the plane bobbed and lurched towards the airport, that Deep Purple’s greatest played on a loop in my brain, refusing to leave: Smo-ow-oke on the wa-aa-ter…
Forty years ago, Deep Purple wrote Smoke On The Water after watching their Swiss recording venue burn down. Someone had fired a smoke flare into the rattan ceiling of the venue, an act which has a cherished place in the Rock’N’Roll Hall Of Stupidity.
As I waited at the baggage carousel in Geneva airport, my own geographical stupidity dawned on me. The song was written about Montreux, 60 kilometres away at the opposite end of Lake Geneva.
Even so, that one line from the song about ‘the Lake Geneva shoreline’ had been enough to press Play on my mental jukebox.
Once that jukebox started playing, it could not be switched off. In the midst of a business meeting, in the shower, or in a hotel bed at 3am, the riff would come and get me: Da da da, da da DA NAH.
Just think of the money, time and creative energy expended over the years on cultivating Geneva’s image as one of the most chic, desirable and discreet business destinations in the world. Then think of how easily all that was swept away by a stray mental association.
Marcel Proust knew all about stray mental associations. The chronicler of the French bourgeoisie didn’t live in an era of Heavy Metal music or intercontinental air travel, for which he was probably grateful. He would likely have found both a little too noisy and unrefined for his tastes.
Now, it might seem a bit of a leap from Deep Purple to Marcel Proust. But Monsieur Proust did give us that most famous of all uninvited memory moments. If it was an episode of Friends, it would be titled The One With The Madeleine Biscuit.
To describe the episode as briefly as possible: one of Proust’s characters is enjoying tea and biscuits, when the flavour from the tiniest crumbs brings a host of childhood memories and sensations flooding back. (There, I think that’s another literary classic dealt with in short order.)
It’s my guess that most branding professionals, the people who create a city’s public image, must live in fear of these unintended Proustian moments happening in their audiences.
Put yourselves in the brand-creator’s (well-heeled) shoes for a moment.
You could, for instance, slave over the production of a wonderful cinema advert about London’s rich heritage of culture and business. You spend hours, days, weeks finding suitably tasteful music that fits the images. Then sit back and watch as the man in row 44 dips into his jumbo popcorn box and quietly hums Knees Up Mother Brown as he watches your ad.
Clever ad agencies can take this mental musical association game and play with it. Let me explain. It’s sometimes more effective to update and subvert the tunes and associations that already playing through the audience’s heads, rather than try to drown them out with something new. In other words, make something new that feels like you’ve known it all your life.
Jaguar Cars scored a tremendous hit with the Propellerheads song History Repeating, when they used it in the launch of the retro-styled S-Type model. Both the car and the song were contemporary, but rich with past associations. Both sold like hot cakes around the world.
It’s a neat trick if you can pull it off, as Proust might have put it.
Great things await those who can make instant classics that look, sound and feel as if they might have been with us all our lives. Whether it’s a song, a car or even a magazine, the past is a good place to start when you’re designing the future.
Meanwhile, don’t get me started about my weekend in Rio de Janeiro, with Barry Manilow’s Copacabana going round my head. Now that was a long 48 hours.
Hywel Jones is a television producer who has travelled the world with the BBC and ITV. He now runs the international broadcast and corporate TV production company hi.tv.
