Corporate songs prove an internet hit

The Office makes fun of company managers

An internet site revelling in company anthems is fast becoming one of the most popular on the internet.

Although motivational songs have long been derided as nonsense thought up by over-paid management consultants, they are now being celebrated.

Word-of-mouth has created a new cult on the internet with the amount of downloads of corporate anthems increasing by the hour.

The site was created by London-based web technologist Chris Raettig after he was sent a file of the KPMG anthem by a friend.

The 23-year-old decided to create a website dedicated to the "inspirational" songs of big corporations.

'Great'

Visitors to the site can download the songs and vote on their favourites, contributing to an IT anthem chart.

The thought of managers singing along to a corporate jingle conjures up images of BBC Two's comedy The Office.

In the show its creator and star, Ricky Gervais, plays a cringe-making manager who tries to inspire his reluctant staff by ensuring they have lots of "fun" and playing the guitar.

And such has been the response that Mr Raettig's own site could not cope with the traffic and it is now being hosted by ZDNet, which has allowed up to 200,000 to visit the site in a week.

'Passionate'

Top of the charts at the moment is consultancy firm McKinsey & Co with McKC, featuring the immortal line "M-C- K-C is the place to be; the team is great, one goddess - see!".

PricewaterhouseCoopers is revelling in its achievement of being third and fourth.

Your World is described by Mr Raettig as a "we're taking this seriously passionate and inspiration vibe" while Downright Global is more "characterful".

'Not responsible'

Jon Bunn of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the UK admitted he did not know the words to the songs but said they were only intended as a bit of fun.

"At a time of the merger about four years ago various territories around the world were charged with coming up with things that were fun as a way of celebrating the merger between Coopers and Lybrand and Pricewaterhouse," he told BBC Radio Five Live.

"Holland and the US came up with these songs, I can say we are not responsible for them."