Sparks frontman Ron Mael has revealed that American advertising jingles from the 1950s and 60s had a lasting, if unconscious, influence on the band's distinctive musical style. Speaking in a past interview with The Quietus, Mael explained that a French journalist first prompted him to consider the connection, after which he recognised the "jaunty, angular, sometimes overly happy" quality of Sparks' music as echoing the catchy commercial jingles he grew up hearing on television.

Mael cited adverts for products including Brylcreem, Gillette razors, Alka-Seltzer and cars as sources of "irritatingly catchy" tunes that shaped him "for better or worse". The article points to songs such as 1981's 'Tips for Teens', which both musically and lyrically parodies the health and beauty advertising of the era, as well as the more recent track 'Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is', as evidence of this earworm-driven influence persisting throughout the band's decades-long career.