This campaign running on Spotify lets you ‘taste’ music

Brands have learned to get really creative on Spotify. In recent weeks, KFC created a playlist of songs featuring its own brand, while Drano created a horror podcast inspired by the crud that clogs your sink. But here’s the first campaign we’ve seem claiming to feature music you can “taste.” In the “Flavor of Songs” effort for cookware brand Tramontina, agency JWT Brazil created an algorithm that purports to turn any song on Spotify into a recipe. Driving the idea is the phenomenon of synesthesia—when stimulation of one sense like sight or sound, triggers another, like smell or touch. In the case of this campaign, sound is meant to make you taste. JWT Brazil and Tramontina conducted a six-month-long study with Dr. Marcelo Costa, head of the Neuroscience Department at the University of Sao Paulo and conductor Joao Rocha of the University of Kentucky, who tried to associate characteristics and aspects of music to qualities associated with food. "If you consider a samba school with its various instruments, that really dense part in terms of sound, you can relate that to dense food," Rocha said in a statement. Also with the help of a chef, Renato Carioni, the research team created an expansive set of classifications, which were then placed into a database that would match up song characteristics to those of different foods or dishes. For example, positivity was associated with bitterness or acidity, dance music was aligned with temperature and energy was applied to density and texture. Through the campaign website, visitors can input any tune to find matching dishes, along with their recipes. The agency says the database leverages A.I. tech similar to those used by financial systems. Testing out the platform, Ariana Grande’s “Into You,” for example, should taste like Cupim Assado com Beterraba no Vapor, Batata Duchesse e Bolinho de Arroz (which roughly translates to Roasted Beef Hump With Steamed Beet, Duchesse Potato and Rice Ball), while Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” should taste like Costela Suína a BBQ com Feijão-Carioca e Couscous Marroquino—Quente (BBQ pork with Carioca Beans and Moroccan Couscous—Hot). The brand tie-in? The site also recommends the Tramontina cookware you should use for each recipe.

This campaign running on Spotify lets you ‘taste’ music

Featured Stories