The series took its name from a 1920s advertising poster for Danish bacon featuring a pig saying "Now. That's What I Call Music" as it listened to a chicken singing. Richard Branson had bought the poster for his cousin, Simon Draper, to hang behind Draper's desk at the Virgin Records office. Branson wrote, "He was notoriously grumpy before breakfast and loved his eggs in the morning, so I bought him the poster, framed it and had it hung behind his desk." The pig became the mascot for the series, making its last regular appearance on "Now That's What I Call Music 5", and made a reappearance on the cover of "Now That's What I Call Music! 100" in 2018.