Our senior jingle correspondent reports from the land of stools.
This is our newsletter-first column, Microtones. It runs on the site on Fridays, but you can get it in your inbox on Thursdays by signing up for our email newsletter.
I love local advertising jingles, which almost always release a little endorphin shot when I hear them. Writing and reporting about them, though, can yield more varied responses.
Sometimes it unearths a sweet story about a family working together for the good of its business. Sometimes, no one currently employed with an organization knows anything about their jingle, which reduces a perfectly good little song to an artifact without a story.
Happily, when I first called the Stool Store, which specializes in stools and other furniture, I was told to call back the next day to speak with Kris “The Jingle Lady.” I was ecstatic, knowing almost for certain that I would be able to learn more about the Stool Store’s perfectly tiny and twinkling tune – “For stools and more, it’s the Stool Store.”
Turns out “The Jingle Lady” is Kris Wilke, owner of the Stool Store. She said that she wrote the song eight years ago to reflect the uniqueness of her retail shop and had it recorded by a marketing team through WMTV. She also said there’s a full 30-second version that elaborates on heights and other stool specifications. The Stool Store uses it occasionally for full-length ad spots on TV.
It’s the icing on top of her success story. Wilke said she went into the Stool Store 20 years ago when it wasn’t even hiring and took a low-paying hourly position. Now she owns the place and she’s responsible for one of the catchiest, most unforgettable local jingles in Madison.
“I have a lot of people who sing it in my store. Some young kids. Some old people. Yeah, they remember it,” Wilke said.
