5.2 MUSIC 77 In Madrid, a similar project has been launched to relax the dogs when they return from a police operation. MUSIC IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND ADVERTISING Music gives pleasure, arouses strong passions, stimulates memories, facilitates and strengthens social bonds, and gives rise to a form of communication that goes beyond words to appeal to the unconscious mind. According to Plato, music is able to bypass reason and penetrate into the very core of the self, causing great impact on the character: because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way into the inmost soul and take the strongest hold upon it. In the USA, November 11 is an official national holiday to honour those who have served in all US wars. ONLINE RESOURCES Protest songs asset: risorsa breeding farm: allevamento despite: malgrado healing: curativo Plato: Platone 180 CREATIVE ARTS Music everywhere Many locations employ music as a background asset. In fitness centres, besides welcoming customers, music helps to reduce the feeling of tiredness, increases heart rate and prepares the body for exercise, helping with coordination and reducing the risk of injury. In restaurants, a faster or a slower rhythm can make customers eat at a different pace, while attracting different kinds of public. In shops, soft music makes people move more slowly and look at products more carefully, while classical music increases the budget customers are ready to spend. In agriculture, the vibrations created by sound waves can stimulate plants to produce more nutrients. In breeding farms, relaxing tunes increase milk and egg production. In stables, music helps horses to relax and reduces their stress levels. Music therapy The idea of music as a healing influence which could affect health and behaviour is at least as old as the writings of Aristotle and Plato , but it was after World War I and World War II, when community musicians went to hospitals around the USA to play for the thousands of veterans suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars , that it started to be considered as a scientifically-based methodology. By using its language for therapeutic purposes, music creates an emotional and symbolic interaction-relationship which may help with elderly people as well as with people suffering from trauma since music influences mood, has significant impact on memory, and improves motor functions. Music in ads Music can also influence the branding of a communication. Since the very beginning of advertising, specially created music for commercials, in the form of jingles, has been used for the benefit of brand memorability. Its use can be very effective: several years ago, for example, in the UK, a group of consumers was asked about their memories and associations with a brand of ice cream and 25% of them mentioned the song O Sole Mio , despite the fact that it had been used in a commercial more than 12 years before.