El Tema Del Verano: A Commercial Creates Furor This Summer In Argentina

As promised, I am trying to add to this blog as one of my New Year's resolutions.

I first heard about El Tema Del Verano, a commercial for Argentine cellular phone company Cti Móvil, at Just MU It, in which the author discusses the very clever ad campaign for the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere. In the past week, I've been seeing more and more posts about this commercial phenomenon taking place in Argentina, at blogs such as Marquitos, Maskus Planet, and leading Buenos Aires daily, La Nación.

If you use Google Argentina, to search for tema del verano you will get about three million hits for a commercial that is about a month old in a country of only 36 million people.

But I still didn't understand the full impact of this one commercial until I read a detailed account by deambulante@SSC, from whom I'm quoting heavily in this post.

In mid-December, mobile or cellular phone company Cti Móvil, launched this new commercial to kick off the summer season in Argentina.

The commercial is based on the fact that every summer in Argentina there is always one musical hit, el tema del verano, that gets played over and over on the radio and in the discos. Usually, it's not a great song, but has a catchy beat, and is just right for hanging out at the beach.

The commercial is a complete spoof on this type of song, as the lyrics attest:

Este es el tema del verano,
Que vas a cantar y bailar en todos lados,
Te habla del sol, de la arena y de las olas,
Y que tiene un estribillo que se te pega,
Que se te pega y nunca despega.

ESTRIBILLO:

Clavo que te clavo la sombrilla,
Clavo que te clavo la sombrilla,
Pero claro que te clavo que te clavo la sombrilla,
Ajá, que te clavo la sombrilla.

Este es el tema, el hitazo del verano,
El que vas a cantar y bailar en todos lados,
Que siempre dice abajo, arriba, abajo,
Y tiene un estribillo que se pega,
Que se pega y nunca despega.

ESTRIBILLO

Este es el tema, el hitazo del verano,
Que vas a cantar y bailar en todos lados,
Y que siempre en una parte tiene un
PUNCHI, PUNCHI, PUNCHI, PUNCHI,
Que se te pega,
Que se te pega y nunca despega.

Este es el tema, el hitazo del verano,
Que vas a cantar y bailar en todos lados,
Porque siempre en una parte pide,
PALMAS, PALMAS, PALMAS,
Y que siempre tiene un meneo sensual, SENSUAL!!!!!!!

ESTRIBILLO

A rough translation in English would be:

This is the summer hit,
That you're going to sing and dance everywhere,
That talks about the sun, the sand, and the waves,
And has a catchy chorus,
That sticks in your head and you never forget.

CHORUS:

I'm going to stick, stick, stick that umbrella in for you,
I'm going to stick that umbrella in for you,
Of course I'm going to stick that umbrella in for you,
Oh yeah, I'm going to stick that umbrella in for you.

This is the hit, the big hit of the summer,
The one you're going to sing and dance everywhere,
The one that always says, up and down, and up and down,
And has a catchy chorus,
That sticks in your head and you never forget.

CHORUS

This is the hit, the big hit of the summer,
The one you're going to sing and dance everywhere,
And has a part that always says,
PUNCHI, PUNCHI, PUNCHI, PUNCHI,
That sticks in your head,
That sticks in your head and you never forget.

This is the hit, the big hit of the summer,
The one you're going to sing and dance everywhere,
Because one part always asks people to
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP,
And has a sensual move, so SENSUAL!!!!!!!

CHORUS

Anyone can tell the song is a parody, and a very clever marketing tool. At the onset of the commercial, a voice says: "Every summer people flee the noise of the city, but they can't escape the Summer Hit, el tema del verano.

And, at the end of the commercial, the same voice declares: The Summer Hit, more dangerous than the sun. Protect yourself with your Cti with MP3, and play your own music this summer.

What the advertisers could never have forseen, and has never happened before in Argentina, was that the song making fun of those temas del verano of years past has in fact become the TEMA DEL VERANO of Summer 2007 in Argentina.

The jingle is receiving constant airplay on the radio and clubs throughout the entire country, more so than any other recent summer hit, if ever. In fact, it has become more popular than any of the songs it was spoofing.

An umbrella dance is being danced at discos and parties all over Argentina.

And, Argentines of all types are making home videos of themselves singing and dancing to the song and uploading them to video hosting sites, such as You Tube. There are teens, entire families, robots, and even a puppet cow singing and dancing to the catchy melody on the Internet.

I don't know if commercials win awards in Argentina but this would win best marketing tool of Summer 2007.

Here is the video:

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