Temu is a client that values the power of music. They are in U.S. brand-building mode, so our 2024 Super Bowl mission was to deliver a track that was ear-wormy, hard-hitting and on message.

Temu also wanted to change the brand pronunciation from “Tee-moo” to “Teh-moo.” And their brief required that Squeak E. Clean Studios continue to leverage last year’s “Shop Like a Billionaire” theme.

Calling on Carly & Martina—who wrote, sang and produced the track—we developed a song that had all the hallmarks of a sugary pop anthem, while still reinforcing the online marketplace’s brand attributes.

“We were aiming to mix worldly-sounding beats with a bubblegum pop melody to pay homage to both the international elements of Temu’s brand and the Americana of the Super Bowl,” say Carly & Martina. “The ‘ooh’ from Temu kept ringing in our ears, and we felt that by making it the cornerstone of our hook, we could capture the magic of the visual through our audio.”

Thanks to our research with Durham University in 2023—at the time, to compose an earworm eraser for software company Atlassian—we understood how the brain processes and recalls melodies based on specific factors. In that case, we used our findings to eliminate the earworm. For Temu, however, we used every page of the textbook to create a song that would outlast its 30 seconds of Big Game air time.

Some results: Sprout Social named Temu one of the top brands that dominated the online conversation for the game, garnering 40,448 mentions and 420,714 engagements.

We relied on the anatomy of an earworm to get the jingle off the ground, but exposure and audience interest helped ensure it became a song that stuck.

Music producer, composer, DJ and director Sam Spiegel founded and serves as ECD at music company Squeak E. Clean. In that capacity, Sam has scored spots for Nike, Cadillac, Adidas and Honda. Most recently, “Mutant Brain” for Kenzo World earned him industry acclaim and rose to number two on the Spotify global viral chart. He has also scored films such as Spike Jonze’s Yeah Right!, Jackass 3D, Pretty Things (an HBO documentary) and Whip It.

We spent two minutes with Sam to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations and recent work he’s admired.

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Sam, tell us…

Where you grew up, and where you live now.

I grew up in New York (Manhattan) and I spent junior high and high school in Westchester County. Now Hollywood has been my home for 20 years.

Your earliest musical memory.

Singing along to a Beach Boys tape that we got at a truck stop in the car with my mom.

Your favorite bands/musicians today.

James Brown is my favorite of all time, but I’m also really loving Flume and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Kanye West used to be one of my favs.

One of your favorite projects you’ve ever worked on. 

The “N.A.S.A.” project was all passion and very conceptual. I got to work with many of my musical heroes, in addition to my visual artist heroes. We created videos for each song and I had the opportunity to partner with Kanye West, David Bryne, Tom Waits, Shephard Fairey, Marcel Dzama and a bunch of other artists that I love. Very multi-medium. Very collaborative.

A recent project you’re proud of. 

I recently shot a music video in India for the track “Fire Sign” from my new project TRY, which was an amazing experience. I was able to direct the video, and I always enjoy being a part of both the music and the visuals. I love dance, travel, shooting, collaboration and meeting people through creative projects, so all of the aspects of this one were pretty amazing. The team that we worked with in India was amazing, and being able to do it with my partners Shmuck the Loyal and Mikky Ekko really made this project check all the boxes. I was very happy with the end product.

One thing about how the music world is evolving that you’re excited about.

I love how easy it is for anyone to make music now and how it evens the playing field. It also democratizes the culture, so anyone with talent can create something and get it out to people. If it’s great, people will find it and like it. Anyone can have a career in music in a way that wasn’t possible before.

Someone else’s work, in music or beyond, that you admired lately.

I really admire Donald Glover’s work. I like his creative vision that spans various mediums. All of his music, film and television work has an intriguing style and perspective.

A book, movie, TV show or podcast you recently found inspiring.

I just read “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro. The book centers around a robot toy and the author explains how the toy is feeling, but really is showing an innate understanding of human emotion.

An artist you admire outside the world of music.

I recently got to go see an architectural tour of John Lautner and be in several of his houses and I really admire him and his vision. It’s a totally unique, and yet functional and comfortable, vision that no one else shares. His buildings are very future-looking and nonconformist but have a humanity to them. I’m wishing there was some architecture as ground-breaking as that happening in our culture now, but I just haven’t really seen it.

Your favorite fictional character.

Chance, the gardener from the movie Being There. I love him because he is so simple and has such a beautiful take on the world.

Someone worth following on social media.

Check out Enbiggen on Instagram. This guy does thematic Rube Goldbergs with chimes that are thematically inspired by certain movies. As the balls roll down, they sound chimes to play a certain movie theme.

Your main strength as a marketer/creative.

Having a vision of greatness for the big picture and making sure that every single detail is perfect to follow through with the vision.

Your biggest weakness.

Taking too many things on at the same time.

Something people would find surprising about you.

I cry a lot. From movies, life, music—really anything.

One thing that always makes you happy.

My son’s laugh.

One thing that always makes you sad.

Animals dying in movies.

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in the music business.

I would be a topiary artist.

When I was 4 years old, I used to look at this album cover while my dad listened to the record, my preschool imagination running wild. I thought the songs were made by people on this spaceship. I especially loved the “robot voices” on “Mr. Blue Sky.” I didn’t know it back then, but this cover joined the late ’70s in a space-age zeitgeist everyone wanted to be a part of, from a similar Boston album cover to the release of the first Star Wars movie.

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Miles Davis
Bitches Brew (1970)

This is maybe the biggest jazz fusion record ever. The music and the artwork were mindblowing to me then, and it still looks and sounds bonkers today. At the time, I hadn’t seen covers even remotely like this, so much going on in the cover, but it captures a moment of magical realism perfectly. I also love how he called the work “directions in music”—the phrasing sounds like music has a life of its own that Davis just intended to steer.

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The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers (1971)

My dad also had this record. It had a real zipper on the cover that you could zip and unzip! I thought it was the coolest thing ever, not only to look at but to actually play with. On top of the sweet functionality, it was designed by Andy Warhol! It definitely set the trend of the Rolling Stones pushing boundaries with what was acceptable on an album—as did their music, in the best way possible.

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A Tribe Called Quest
Midnight Marauders (1993)

This is a classic Tribe album. The cover featured the heads of most of the greats in hip-hop at the time, and didn’t miss a face, in my opinion. The tribal fusion with modern artists did a great job of joining eras into one encapsulating culture. This record still slaps!

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DJ Shadow
Endtroducing (1996)

This photo of dudes in a record store shines a light on a big part of what went into the album. It primarily comprises samples that were found digging through bins at record stores like these. DJ Shadow isn’t actually even in the photo—it’s actually a few of his friends at a shop in the Bay Area.

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Justice
Cross (2007)

This is just a simple and smart design choice. It’s extremely bold to claim the cross as their symbol, but it worked. The music was also just as stark and in your face; it was really a perfect pairing of visuals to the sound. Also, have you heard the song “Stress” off this album? Give it a listen, but not when you’re actually stressed—the piercing high-pitched note throughout encapsulates an adrenaline rush a little too well.

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Dr. Dre
The Chronic (1992)

This is the album that brought gangsta rap to the suburbs. This cover art is a fun flip of the zig zag rolling paper packaging and a tribute to partakers of the album’s namesake. (I’ll assume you understood that reference, but in case you didn’t, it’s slang for high-grade cannabis.) All markers of a strong presentation for Dr. Dre’s first solo studio album.

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Prince
Purple Rain (1984)

How fucking cool is Prince on this cover? A true legend, always completely owning his own thing and crushing it time after time. The purple flowers on either side actually look to be raining down the album cover, replacing the lack of actual rain, though that might have been too on-the-nose for him.

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New Order
Blue Monday 12 (1983)

This was the extended single for New Order’s smash hit “Blue Monday.” The cover was die-cut to look like a floppy disk. It cost them so much to produce the sleeve that they initially lost money on the release. But it did make a nice coffee table piece, in addition to a great album.

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Beastie Boys
Paul’s Boutique (1989)

I love how this random picture of a Brooklyn storefront is the album cover for the Beasties’ second album. The vinyl release had a gatefold sleeve that opened up so you could see a panoramic view of the street corner. At the time, this record was a commercial flop, but it’s now considered to be one of their best—if not their best—albums. 

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First Note is a Muse essay series about the transformative power of music and the songs that most influenced us. If you’d like to write a First Note piece, please get in touch.

The commercial won three silver Clios, a Gold Effie and a pair of Cannes Gold Lions, including the very first such award for original music. Karen O released an expanded version of the song as a single. 

Now, to celebrate its merger with Nylon Studios and the formation of expanded commercial music and marketing firm Squeak E. Clean Studios, Spiegel and his team have remade the song for a music video that pairs clips of the company’s crew at work with archival footage from NASA. 

“This recording was made all over the world, from all six of our studios: New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Sydney and Melbourne,” Spiegel tell Muse. 

Some 14 songsmiths from the combined company submitted ideas for the remake. “I took all of the demos and mashed them up, taking my favorite parts from each, and then brought a children’s chorus into the studio to record the vocals,” Spiegel says. 

Though recognizable, the update has a more upbeat, energetic feel compared to the original. Its transformation speaks to the power of music to transcend space and time, engaging new listeners with rhythms and vibes shaped for the moment.

“That [original] version was much more of a magical lullaby, about entering the world of your dreams and imagination,” Spiegel says. “We wanted this version to have a similar message of creating your own world of imagination, because that’s what we’ve done with our merger. We’ve cultivated the visions of these two awesome companies for many years, and now we’ve merged to create a bigger, more complete and powerful version of our visions. For that reason, we wanted the song to feel powerful and exciting, rather than a lullaby.”

What’s more, the forward-looking track captures “the future of what I want to build in a company,” Spiegel says, “creating entire campaigns from conception, to production, experiential, completion—and even helping with the distribution of the projects.”

The “Wu-Tang in Space Eating Impossible Sliders” push for White Castle last year serves as “a great example of a project we handled head to toe, bringing in partners like our production partner Hey Wonderful where we found it necessary,” he says.

More recently, Squeak E. Clean in Sydney provided updated takes on the jazz standard “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)” for these playfully quirky ads from Design Army and Thailand luxe condo developer SC Asset.