Music and Institutional Advertising

This chapter explores music and advertising in the United States during the golden age of radio using the 1946–1947 season of Echoes of New York as a case study. As a radio-variety program sponsored by New York electric utility Consolidated Edison, Echoes is an example of institutional advertising, a form of advertising designed to shape public perception of the company, rather than to sell specific products. The company entrusted the important task to its long-time advertising agency, McCann-Erickson. Drawing on scripts, scores, memos, and financial documentation, this chapter considers broadcast entertainment’s creation and perpetuation of formulaic construction in program format as well as the gradual streamlining of McCann-Erickson’s musical activities in a typical work week. The chapter highlights the role of Con Edison’s all-male company chorus, the Edisoneers, as a physical and aural representation of the message Echoes sought to impart. In focusing on the work of producing music for institutional advertising, this chapter contributes to studies that have illuminated the foundational position of advertising agencies in driving the form and content of programming during the radio era.