CASA - the contemporary a cappella society - Oreo Cookies And A Cappella...What A Classic Combination

Oreo Cookies And A Cappella...What A Classic Combination

Written by Marty Gasper

Wednesday, 21 June 2006

Blue Jupiter w/Randy Jackson

Last year, Blue Jupiter won Oreo’s Milk and Cookie Jingle Contest hosted by Randy Jackson. While I’m proud to say that Blue Jupiter’s version of the classic jingle was well received, I have to attribute our win to our manager, Diana Preisler.

Rewinding back to last summer, Diana and I had a meeting about the usual Blue Jupiter happenings- albums, tours, agents, etc. At the end of the meeting she said, “There’s a jingle contest being advertised every 10 minutes on Z100 (top-40 station here in NYC). I think it’s for Oreo Cookies and Randy Jackson is hosting the whole thing. Blue Jupiter should submit for it, and by the way, the deadline is Monday.”

Well, it being Friday night, and with a weekend earmarked for a trip to Atlantic City, I jumped on the arrangement, developed it with the rest of the Jupes, and scheduled a taping with our videographer for early Saturday Morning.

Out of thousands of entries, Blue Jupiter and 9 other finalists were flown to L.A. for the competition. I was surprised to see that more than half the competitors were a cappella groups. That’s when it clicked for me. If contemporary a cappella music is going to break out, it has to be heard by industry VIPs. Shortly after this epiphany I graciously thanked my manager for forcing us to put this jingle together, explaining all that I had realized. She smiled and said, “Yeah, I know. Glad to see you caught up with me on this. Allow me to introduce you to Randy Jackson.”

So what’s the big deal with this jingle contest? Blue Jupiter’s involvement last year brought contemporary a cappella to the top of the music industry pool, and they listened.

This year, two a cappella groups have made it to the finals, A Cappella Gold, from San Diego, CA, and Odysy from Philadelphia, PA. You can see their audition videos at www.oreo.com. You can hear Blue Jupiter’s rendition of the classic jingle at www.bluejupiter.com.