Monday, December 6, 2010

FIFTEEN PRINCIPLES FOR CREATIVE SLOGANS

In June I published a post about a dozen principles for creative slogans. Now, after further study, I wish to add some principles and increase their number to fifteen.

1. Alliteration:
“I’m fit not fat”.
This is a slogan many women need to remember.

2. Concord:
The Generic Pharmaceutical Association’s slogan is “Same Medicine, Same Results.”

3. Contraries:
George Eastman coined the slogan, "you press the button, we do the rest," when he introduced the Kodak camera in 1888 and within a year, it became a well-known phrase.

4. Direct command:
"Think Different" is an advertising slogan created for Apple Computer in 1997 by the Los Angeles office of advertising agency TBWA.

5. Rhyme:
"Better dead than Red" was an anti-Communist phrase, possibly first used during World War II (in German as "Lieber tot als rot") and later during the Cold War by the United States.

6. Pun:
“The Conservative party’s 1978 poster of a snaking line of people queuing for the unemployment office under the slogan ‘Labour isn’t working’ has been voted the poster advertisement of the century.
Do you see what is the pun here? The word 'Labour' has two meanings: (1) a party's name, (2) the very word 'labour' means 'work'.

7. Imitation, parody:
In one of its ads, Verizon mocks the iPhone's catchphrase, "there's an app for that." Verizon has tweaked it, and says instead, "there's a map for that."

8. Direct appeal to "You":
Yahoo has slogans: “The Internet is under new management: Yours” and “The Internet has a new personality: Yours.”

9. Famous Name:
There is a company claiming to forecast the future - The Channeled Readings. It announced a new company slogan . . . The Nostradamus of the NEWS!

10. Other dimension:
In this case a smell is used as a new dimension for a slogan:
In Summer 2009, after city workers, who went back to work after a strike that lasted 36 days, had cleaned up the mess on streets of Toronto, Tourism Toronto launched a newspaper campaign celebrating the end of the strike.
The headline was: "Toronto Never Smelled So Good." The ads were meant to remind Ontarians that Toronto is a great place to come during the summer - especially now that city workers had cleaned up the mess on streets and makeshift landfills.

11. Compliment to the customer:
The SYMS discount clothing chain has an unforgettable slogan: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

12. Logical Statement:
Deng Xiaoping (in China) became famous for saying: “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches the mice” – a slogan he used to start capitalist-style economic reforms in a country that officially subscribed to communism.

13. Rhetorical question:
Bold for Breast Cancer is an event created in the summer of 2008 to help raise awareness of breast cancer in a less conventional way through the art of body painting. The slogan is, "breast cancer isn't shy, why should we be?"

14. Humor:
"It's the economy, stupid" was a phrase widely used during Bill Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign against George H.W. Bush. For a time, Bush was considered unbeatable because of foreign policy developments such as the end of the Cold War and the Persian Gulf War. The phrase refers to the notion that Clinton was a better choice because Bush had not adequately addressed the economy, which had recently undergone a recession.

15. Figure of speech:
There are various figures of speech. One of them is chiasmus. Like this: Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy

Sunday, September 12, 2010

CASE STUDY: SLOGAN IDEA FOR A TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION PROGRAM

Somebody asked a question: "Anybody have ideas? Looking for a slogan idea for a teen pregnancy prevention program!?"
Let us help her to find a slogan. I just take two of the principles:

First, Alliteration:
(For example: "Enjoy Star & Story" was a slogan of the competition at Seoul Int'l Drama Awards)
Now our case is about the word "safe". So let say it like:
SAFE IS SMART.

Then, Imitation, or parody:
In our case it could be like:
YES WE ARE SAFE.
Or simpler: YES WE SAFE.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

CREATIVE SLOGAN BY CHIASMUS

Jeff Larche in his comment to this blog points to chiasmus as a figure of speech.
Chiasmus (ki-az'-mus) is repetition of ideas in inverted order. Word order in one clause is inverted in the other (inverted parallelism).
Jeff brings this example: "Say No to No Say" was 1984 slogan of Greater London Council.

Here are more examples:
"Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F. Kennedy
"America did not invent human rights... Human rights invented America." Jimmy Carter
"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog." Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Some people use change to promote their careers; other people use their careers to promote change." Sarah Palin
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Benjamin Franklin

Saturday, June 12, 2010

DOZEN PRINCIPLES FOR CREATIVE SLOGANS

My recent analysis for creative & funny slogans shows a dozen (plus one) of main principles:

1. Alliteration:
"Rats Rock",
"Go Google"

2. Congruence:
"One City: One Goal",
“Real Health, Real People, Real Results”

3. Contraries:
"Make love not war"
“Getting a DUI is easy, calling your mom from jail is hard”

4. Direct command:
"Work smart", “Just Do It”, "Just say no"

5. Rhyme:
“Today was a good day”, "I Like Ike"

6. Pun:
"NOBAMA", "Westoxification"

7. Imitation, parody:
"Yes Pecan!", “yes we cannabis”

8. The use of the word "You":
“Broadcast Yourself”,
“Make Your Ideas Count”

9. The use of a Famous Name:
"A film with the passion of Tennessee Williams"

10. Compliment to the customer:
"A great nation deserves great art",

11. Logical Statement:
'Abortion is not Healthcare'

12. Rhetorical question:
"Where is our vote?"
"Breast cancer isn't shy, why should we be?"

13. Humor:
"It's the economy, stupid"

Friday, May 21, 2010

PERSONAL NAME FOR SLOGAN

It is interesting how the personal name gets a role in slogan making.
For example:
"Give 'em Hell, Harry!" became a lifetime slogan for Truman supporters.
"I Like Ike" was Eisenhower's funny campaign slogan.

Issey Miyake's first fragrance was L'eau d'Issey for women. The name L'eau d'Issey (engl.: Issey's water) is a pun. In French, it sounds identical to "l'odyssée" (eng. odyssey).

Remember how 'Lolita' by Nabokov starts?
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
This famous excerpt shows us the importance of the NAME.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

More examples for rhyme in funny slogans

One more example for RHYME slogan. “If it bleeds, it leads.”
This slogan is about TV reporting. If the news has violence, crime, or injury, it guarantees top story status.
This slogan has been around for a long time. Now there is a new one: “If it moves, it grooves”. Anything out of the ordinary becomes stuff for a TV newscast.

More example. Farmers in Scotland and Canada tried to boost the sale of pork with a campaign slogan urging people to “put PORK on your FORK”.

I bring a video here about a song with a plenty of RHYME. This is a Michel Legrand's song THE WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND. There was a movie in the 1960s "Thomas Crown Affair". The movie was not so famous, but the music by Michel Legrand... May it supply an inspiration for you toward more rhymes in your funny campaign slogans.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

RHYME FOR A FUNNY SLOGAN

It's fun to see how they use RHYME to produce creative slogans.

For example, how the "I Like Ike" slogan was created?
If you don't remember who is 'Ike' - I am talking about Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower. He was the President of the United States from 1953 until 1961.

Imagine you are a campaign researcher for a president's campaign. You have two options:
A. You can ask people to describe their views on all the political issues.
B. You can just ask the people what they think / feel about your candidate.
So which option would you choose?

They did research for the campaign and found out more people wanted to talk about how they trusted and felt comfortable with Ike, but didn't like to describe their views on all the issues.

Eisenhower's campaign slogan in 1952, "I Like Ike", was simple but effective. Оne of the most popular in American history.