MAD Conversations

After The Jingle: The Truth Nobody Expected

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0000

For five episodes, MAD Conversations has heard from the composers, the producers, the sound engineers, and the regulators. The people who built Ghana’s most iconic jingles and the people who approved or rejected them.
This time, we hit to the streets.
We stopped real Ghanaians and asked them one question: do you remember the jingle? Most did, some didn’t. And what they said on those streets led us straight back to the studio, where we brought in two of them to take the conversation further.
Mawunya (Gen Z) and Raymond (millennial) sit across from Abeiku Dadson to dissect the question every brand manager, advertiser, and creative director wants answered: Did the jingle actually work?
They talk about the ads they still remember word for word. The ones that annoyed them into muting the TV. The ones that followed them to the supermarket shelf. And the ones they sang at parties; long after the campaign had ended.
What they say is not from a focus group. It is not from a research report. It is the unfiltered consumer perspective - two generations of it - and it will change how you think about your next campaign brief.

MAD Conversations - Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design.
Ghana’s commercial creativity - documented.

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Spotify — it helps more people find the show.
Connect with Abeiku:
LinkedIn: /samuel-ad
Follow MAD Conversations:
Instagram: /mad.conversations_
Facebook: /14zri1aebdd
TikTok: /mad.conversations
X: https://x.com/MADConversation
Listen on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M5ojvM
Website: https://adverbemedia.com/shows/mad-co

After The Jingle: The Rules Nobody Told You

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Ghana's advertising industry generates billions each year and operates with almost no legal framework to protect brands, agencies, artists, or consumers.

In this episode of MAD Conversations, Andrew Ackah, CEO of Dentsu Ghana and President of the Association of Advertisers in Ghana, breaks down everything the industry won't say out loud. The Ghana Advertising Bill that has been stuck since 2012, the FDA regulations that kill campaigns before they launch, the celebrity alcohol ad ban that makes no sense, the charlatans on digital TV that no one can legally stop, and the billions flowing through influencer marketing that nobody is taxing.

This is the conversation Ghana's creative economy needs.

This is MAD Conversations. Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design. Ghana's commercial creativity - documented.

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Spotify, it helps more people find the show.

Connect with Abeiku:
LinkedIn: /samuel-ad

Follow MAD Conversations:
Instagram: /mad.conversations_
Facebook: /14zri1aebdd
TikTok: /mad.conversations
X: https://x.com/MADConversation

Listen on: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M5ojvM
Website: https://adverbemedia.com/shows/mad-co

Chapters
0:00 Intro
12:20 Ghana's Advertising Regulatory Framework Explained
14:31 How the FDA Approves and Rejects Ads in Ghana
21:41 What Gets an Ad Rejected
49:53 The Celebrity Alcohol Advertising Ban
54:31 Digital Advertising and the Regulation Gap
1:00:18 FDA's 8-Second Rule
1:05:39 Charlatans on Digital TV
1:11:06 Ghana vs Nigeria
1:21:22 The Bill's Journey Through Parliament
1:29:49 Ghana's Billboard Problem and the Wallpaper Effect
1:37:21 Disrupt and Inspire
1:39:26 Consumer Loyalty, Competition, and How Brands Must Adapt
1:47:28 What Keeps Andrew Up at Night
1:52:32 The Future of Music in Advertising: AI, Copyright, and Original Scores

Adonko Fa Me Ko: The Love Song That Became Ghana's Biggest Bitters Anthem

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Everyone in Ghana knows the Adonko jingle. Almost nobody knows the man who made it.

Dr. Yaw Stone wrote Adonko Fa me kɔ as a love song in 2013, and it flopped. Three years later he received a call, and without a brief, a contract, and a label, he turned it into one of the most recognizable piece of music in Ghanaian advertising history. Then Ghana sang his song everywhere and forgot his face.

In this episode of MAD Conversations, Abeiku Dadson sits down with Dr. Yaw Stone - highlife musician, Mentor 6 winner, herbal medicine practitioner, and the quiet force behind some of Ghana's most iconic jingles - for a conversation about music, advertising, and what happens when creativity meets commerce with no one in your corner.

They get into how the original love song became a bitters jingle, why FDA regulators changed his lyrics three times before approving it, how he owns the copyright to Adonko and has never stopped getting paid for it, why he chose relationships over lawsuits when things went wrong, and what every young Ghanaian creative needs to know before they sign anything.

This is not just a music story. It's a masterclass in creative ownership.

This is MAD Conversations. Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design. Ghana's commercial creativity - documented.

Enjoyed this episode?
Leave a review on Spotify, it helps more people find the show.

Connect with Dr. Yaw Stone
Twitter : @YawStoneGh

Instagram: yawstone1.

YouTube: Yaw Stone

TikTok: Doctor Yaw Stone

Connect with Abeiku:
LinkedIn: / samuel-ad

Follow MAD Conversations:
Instagram: / mad.conversations_
Facebook: / 14zri1aebdd
TikTok: / mad.conversations
X: https://x.com/MADConversation

Listen on: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M5ojvM
Website: https://adverbemedia.com/shows/mad-co

Chapters
0:00 Meet Yaw Stone
0:32 Mentor 5: Getting Kicked Out & Life in Between
5:32 Growing Up in Kumasi
8:59 The Road Back to Mentor…6
14:17 Winning Mentor 6
24:45 What Came After the Win
26:20 The Prayer That Changed Everything
33:23 How the Adonko Deal Really Happened
36:45 The FDA Process Behind the Jingle
45:19 Originality, Brand Relationships, & Getting Paid
57:30 Beyond Adonko
1:23:27 Advice to Young Artists

He Made 300+ Jingles. You Know Them All. You Don't Know Him | Fred Kyei Mensah (Fredyma)

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Before the ad ends, a note has found you. Not by chance but by design. Behind every jingle that made you hum, buy, or believe, there was an engineer who understood that sound is not decoration, it is a science and strategy.

For over four decades, that producer was Mr. Fred Kyei Mensah (Fredyma).

300+ jingles. A career most people experienced without ever knowing his name. In this episode, Abeiku Dadson sits down with veteran sound engineer Fred Kyei Mensah to talk about the business of sound, the craft and process behind Ghana's most familiar commercial moments, and the life lived on the other side of the glass.

The conversation unpacks what it really takes to build a career in audio production in the 1980s, why jingle-making became one of the most quietly lucrative corners of Ghana's creative industry, and how Uncle Fred navigated the highs, the grind, and the losses that came with it.

Because behind every great jingle is a story that never made the final cut.

Some sounds stay with you. So do some stories.

This is MAD Conversations. Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design. Ghana's commercial creativity - documented.

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Spotify, it helps more people find the show.

Connect with Abeiku:
LinkedIn: / samuel-ad

Follow MAD Conversations:
Instagram: / mad.conversations_
Facebook: / 14zri1aebdd
TikTok: / mad.conversations
X: https://x.com/MADConversation

Listen on: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M5ojvM
Website: https://adverbemedia.com/shows/mad-co

Sound Engineer : The Music in Your Head is Not An Accident. I Engineered It | Roger Ebo Quansah (QAL-NEL)

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Before the hit record, before the brand anthem, before the ad that makes you stop scrolling, there was someone in a room, shaping every single sound you heard.

In this episode, Abeiku Dadson sits down with Roger Ebo Quansah, sound engineer and music producer, to go behind the glass and into the craft that most people never see but everyone is affected by. The mix. The frequency. The silence between the notes. None of it is accidental.

The conversation digs into what it actually means to engineer sound for brands, what separates a good jingle from a great one, how Ghana's music and advertising industries are evolving together, and why the emotional power of audio is one of the most underestimated tools in a marketer's arsenal.

And then there is the question that runs through every second of this episode; if you have ever heard a song and felt something before you even understood why that was not by chance, someone built that moment specifically for you.

For every creative director, brand manager, musician, and marketer working in Ghana today, this conversation is a reminder that sound is strategy.

This is MAD Conversations. Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design. Ghana's commercial creativity - documented.

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Spotify - it helps more people find the show.

Connect with Abeiku: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-ad/

Follow MAD Conversations:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mad.conversations_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/14Zri1aEBDd/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mad.conversations

X: https://x.com/MADConversation

Listen on: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/mad-conversations/id1881906780

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M5ojvMvKg8PnbMdcMDobC

Before The Jingle: Ghana's Ancient Advertising Blueprint as Told by a Musicologist. | Dr. Fiagbedzi

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Before jingles, before radio, before television - there was the town crier.

In this episode, Abeiku Dadson sits down with Dr. Eyram Fiagbedzi, a musicologist and traditional music scholar to trace the origins of advertising communication in Ghana all the way back to its roots. The gong, the talking drum, the market chant were not just instruments, they were Ghana's first media, Ghana's first ad formats, Ghana's first strategy for cutting through the noise and reaching people.

The conversation unpacks how sound became the most trusted carrier of messages in Ghanaian communities, why drumming was never just entertainment, and how the transition from traditional musical communication to the modern radio jingle was less of a leap and more of a natural evolution.

And then there is the question that sits at the heart of it all; if you don't know where you're coming from, how will you know where you're going? For every brand manager, marketer, musician, and creative working in Ghana today, understanding this history is not optional, it is the foundation.

This is MAD Conversations. Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design.
Ghana's commercial creativity - documented.

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Spotify - it helps more people find the show.

Connect with Abeiku: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-ad/

Follow MAD Conversations: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mad.conversations_/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/14Zri1aEBDd/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mad.conversations
X: https://x.com/MADConversation

Listen on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/mad-conversations/id1881906780
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M5ojvMvKg8PnbMdcMDobC

Pilot Episode - Why Every Ghanaian Ad Has A Song (Music in Ghanaian Advertising)

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Before the guests, the case studies, and the deep dives — this is where MAD Conversations begins.

Season 1 is dedicated to one question: how has music shaped the way brands speak to Ghanaians? From the earliest radio jingles to the hiplife era to the sounds playing in your earbuds right now, music has always been doing something most marketers never fully understood.

In this episode, Abeiku Dadson sets the stage for what's coming. Conversations with the producers, artists, marketers, brand managers, and historians who made Ghana's advertising sound what it is today.

If you've ever caught yourself humming a jingle you haven't heard in years — this season is for you.

MAD Conversations. Marketing. Advertising. Digital. Design.

Ghana's commercial creativity — documented.

Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review on Spotify — it helps more people find the show.

Connect with Abeiku:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-ad/

Follow MAD Conversations:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mad.conversations_/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/14Zri1aEBDd/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mad.conversations
X: https://x.com/MADConversation

Listen on:
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/mad-conversations/id1881906780
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5NbVqYvuR93379GDtQJ7cQ

Watch on:
www.youtube.com/@mad.conversations