Advertising slogan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Advertising slogans are claimed to be, and often are proven to be, the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product or products. Typically they make claims about being the best quality, the tastiest, cheapest, most nutritious, providing an important benefit or solution, or being most suitable for the potential customer.
At the start of World War I, when modern advertising was in its infancy, a famous poster called on young British men to heed the need expressed by one of Britain's foremost soldiers, Lord Kitchener, and volunteer to serve their country. The famous slogan "Your Country Needs You" was heard around the world. Still today America uses a variant of this slogan ("Uncle Sam wants you", or "The Army needs you").
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[edit] What makes an effective slogan?
Advertising slogans often play a large part in the interplay between rival companies. An effective slogan usually:
- states the main benefits of the product or brand for the potential user or buyer
- implies a distinction between it and other firms' products - of course, within the usual legal constraints
- makes a simple, direct, concise, crisp, and apt statement
- is often witty
- adopts a distinct "personality" of its own
- gives a credible impression of a brand or product
- makes the consumer feel "good"
- makes the consumer feel a desire or need
- is hard to forget - it adheres to one's memory (whether one likes it or not), especially if it is accompanied by mnemonic devices, such as jingles, ditties, pictures or film sequences on televised commercials.
[edit] Who creates slogans?
Usually, slogans are created as advertising copy by professional writers among whom writers of serious literature, such as novelists may be found at times. On the other hand slogans often originate as tiebreakers created by "compers" or competition entrants as a means of elimination in trade competitions, often combined with a submitted proof of purchase of the company's product.
[edit] Slogans and ethics
Advertising slogans are subject to ethical constraints and are often viewed with reservations, if not actual misgivings by official bodies, such as the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK, or the European Advertising Standards Alliance who claim to have a responsibility to the public good and whose decision making follows an Advertising Code. Similar organizations exist in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, as well as other countries.
[edit] Example slogans
- "Kids just bein' kids!Fairly Oddparents
- "All you add is love", Purina Dog Chow, Noel Digby
- "Because you're worth it" - L'Oréal
- "Breakfast of Champions" - Wheaties, General Mills 1935, Blackett-Sample-Gummert (later "The Breakfast of Champions" late 1990s)
- "Can't Get Enough of That Golden Crisp"
- "Chuck Wagon", Purina Dog Chow, Rick Sides
- "Connecting people" - Nokia
- "Do the right thing buy a Chicken Wing" Petey Pablo
- "Doing what we do best", and later "Something special in the air" - American Airlines
- "Exceedingly Good Cakes" - Mr Kipling Cakes
- "FAN-TASTIC" National Basketball Association 1982, Margaret Dickey Roeder, TMC
- "The Most Famous Liners in the World" - Cunard Line
- "Guinness is good for you" - Guinness Brewing Company, Dublin
- "Have it your way" - Burger King
- "I'm Going to Disney World!" - The Walt Disney Company after and during the Super Bowl
- "I'm lovin' it" - McDonald's
- "Leap Ahead" - Intel
- "It's the way we bake it that makes it" - Greggs
- "It's all inside" - JC Penny's
- "Just do it" - Nike
- "Leave the driving to us" - Greyhound Lines
- "Let your fingers do the walking." - Yellow Pages, 1964, Geers Gross
- "Life's Good" - LG
- "Live Your Own Life" - Busch Beer, L. W. Richardson
- "Look at Opel now" - Opel
- "Love Your Style" - JCPenney, 1990s
- "Make it happen" - Royal Bank of Scotland
- "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee", Sara Lee Frozen Foods
- "Rolaids Relief Man" - Warner-Lambert, Margaret Dickey Roeder, TMC
- "So tough, it's beautiful." - Armstrong Rhinofloor, 1980s
- "Taking you forward" - Ericsson
- "The Bold Look of Kohler" - 1971, Kohler, L. W Richardson
- "The champagne of ginger ales." - Canada Dry, 1970s
- "The First Kid's Network" - Nickelodeon
- "The Network" - NBC, late 1960s
- "The Ultimate Driving Machine." - BMW
- "Think different." - Apple (after IBM's internal slogan "Think!")
- "Think outside the bun" - Taco Bell
- "Think small." - Volkswagen, for the Type 1 (Beetle)
- "Touching is good." - Nintendo DS
- "We play favorites" - Nick @ Nite
- "Were Not All There" - Ireland
- "What can brown do for you?" - UPS
- "What’s an Intel chip doing inside a Mac? A lot more than it ever did inside a PC." - Apple
- "Where Do You Want To Go Today?" - Microsoft, 1990s
- "With responsibility to results" - Getsadze & Pateishvili
- "You never forget your first girl" - St. Pauli Girl, L.W. Richardson
- "You'll flying Braniff Style - everybody's talkin" - Braniff Airlines, L. W. Richardson
- love to play" - Nick Jr., 2000s