Tuesday, June 17, 2008

HOW TO INVENT A CATCHY SLOGAN? CREATIVE WRITING IDEA


SITUATION


I saw a question about slogans. The reader was asking creative writing ideas for:
1. Creating awareness for road safety through wearing of helmets.
2. Conserving fuel energy
3. Preventing noise/air pollution.

Inventing slogans is a challenge, is it not? So we need some way to invent creative writing ideas for slogans.


DIRECTIONS & EXAMPLES


First, I started looking for good slogan examples. 'Nothing runs like a Deere' is a slogan of John Deere (a great tractor manufacturer). Deere – deer. It is a play of words, isn't it? A pun.

Second, it is short. Just four words.

Third, just for the sake of the wordplay: let us use alliteration. No, I don't say it is the only way to build a pun. There are several ways, as in the above example: Deere – deer. But I wish to use alliteration just for the sake of training.

Remember good examples for alliteration? 'Donald Duck', 'busy as a bee', 'good as gold'. And plenty of others.
One more example I found thanks to Seth Godin. "Wanna See my Socks?" - this is a slogan of 'Little Miss Matched', a sock company. Do you hear the alliteration?
By the way, do you see another wordplay here: 'Miss Matched'? And why is it 'mismatched'? Because their funky socks never match.


SOLUTION


OK, let us start with the first slogan. Helmet is in the center. Let us find words with 'h' and 'l'. A helmet is holding. What is a helmet holding? A head? 'A helmet is holding a head.' Maybe. There is another word: a hull. It is not a head exactly, but it sounds good.
'Helmet's holding your hull'

Now the second slogan. It is about energy. I've found three words alliterating with 'energy'. These are the words: enable / encourage / enhance.
I like it like this:
'Enhance Energy Economy'.

Finally, the third slogan: it is about pollution. Let's find the alliterating word to the word pollution. 'Pull', for example. Let's say it like this:
'Pull polluters down'

Those are creative writing ideas for our three slogans.

13 comments:

  1. Jacob,
    so you suggest alliteration...
    Is it the only way in this case?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Audrey,
    Sure this is not the only way here.
    But this was the first I thought about.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My homework is to come up with a slogan, for my English class... Any suggestions???

    ReplyDelete
  4. Melissa,
    it would be better to supply some particular info on your situation: Which class is it? What is the audience? Are you a teacher or a student?
    Still, even without this necessary info, let's give it a try. Suppose, you wish to invent a slogan for the same English class as if you need to promote this class/college etc.
    Let's use a consonance (like "All mammals named Sam are clammy").
    For example: "English coolish college".
    The consonance is between "EngLISH and cooLISH. Then you have also an alliteration between coolish and college.

    ReplyDelete
  5. hii jacob,
    i have a campain about positive body image and i need a catchy slogan! have aqny ideas please?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Zabin,
    Could you support more info on your situation?
    First, let's try it short: 'Impose your positive image'. Do you hear the pun of the words 'imPOSe' and 'POSitive', then 'IMpose' and 'IMage'?
    Second, let's formulate a slogan on the base of the word 'posture': 'Perfect posture imposes positive image'. Alliteration between 'Perfect',
    Posture' and 'Positive', then similar syllables of 'POSture', 'imPOSes' and 'POSitive'.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi. My school is celebrating its
    15th years anniversary, calling it the "crystal Jubilee". I have been asked to come up with a slogan that will be put up on the street corners and building aroudn the school. Alot of people have put in ideas but the Directors quiet satisfied yet.

    Please help if you have any thoughts .. something that begins with Crystal Jubilee or contains the word Crystal Jubilee is fine.

    Abit about the school. This is the first school providing Bilingual Program od Thailand(all main subjects taught in Englsih and Thai) The school also runs many associations relating to private schools and associations and keep good relations with the Ministry of Education with the objective to push regulations for foreginer to work i the country with minimum problems.

    Thank you. pPs let me know if you need more info.

    ReplyDelete
  8. octobersym,
    What is the name of your school?
    The Jubilee is about YOUR school, not any other one. So the name should take part in the slogan.
    Let me know pls.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Jacob,

    The school refers itself as "extra" and yes the jubilee is about the school's 15th anniversary. The name ahould take part in the slogan or a catchy one would be nice. We want the word Crystal Jubilee to be int eh sentence as well.
    The ones we have come up with are soemthing like these but apparently they are not catchy enough...

    -One voice, two languages: Learning to be Thai in a world with no strangers
    -Bilingual education: Students get extra at Ektra
    _The taller the peak, the higher the achievement: Extra's Crystal Jubilee

    FYI

    ReplyDelete
  10. *sorry teh school is"Ektra" not extra.

    ReplyDelete
  11. octobersym,
    First of all, your examples are not bad: 'One voice, two languages' or 'Extra's Crystal Jubilee'. The last one just points to the essence.
    Now I think a slogan to be catchy needs (1) to be short (2) to use alliteration and rhyme.
    So we have a word 'Ektra' and a word 'crystal' or 'jubilee'. There is no rhyme or alliteration between these words. Then we need to introduce a Mediator (= intermediary).
    Like this: 'Ektra is extremal crystal'.
    On the one side, an alliteration between 'ektra' and 'extremal'. On the other side, a rhyme between 'extremal' and 'crystal'. In addition, a consonance of the consonants 'k', 't', 'r'.
    Or like this: 'Ektra's extremely jubilee'.
    A rhyme between 'extremely' and 'jubilee'.
    Good luck to your school.

    ReplyDelete
  12. For my language arts class i need to create a slogan for a product that we make up ourselfs. I picked to make the product socks that glow in the dark. Do you have any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Jacob! I like the way you play with words in order to make a slogan. I hope to ask a favor from you alos^^, In our company, we have an english village but the people studying here are IT professionals. The concept of the village is real English practice in Business. what do you think suit for IT people's slogan?

    ReplyDelete