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.

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 Connect with Dr. Yaw Stone 
Twitter : @YawStoneGh

Instagram: yawstone1. 

YouTube: Yaw Stone

TikTok: Doctor Yaw Stone

 Connect with Abeiku: 
  LinkedIn: / samuel-ad

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Listen on: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast
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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

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

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 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 

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