Maybe Taglines Died Because Most of Them Were So Horrible? / Jossip

Maybe Taglines Died Because Most of Them Were So Horrible?

Powerful taglines, or "powerlines" as AdAge's Steve Cone SO CLEVERLY calls them, have gone missing from today's marketing. You don't see a tagline for Apple commercials anymore; you just see the bitten apple logo. Based on that alone, we're going to agree: Taglines have died! Even if Jossip still insists on using one.

But what if an advertiser wants to bring one back? What should they do? Asks-and-answers Cone:

Are there easy-to-remember general guidelines that can increase the chance of my company creating a compelling tagline that will stand the test of time? Yes — four, to be exact.

1.) You are different; say so. Don't use common words.

2.) Have real attitude; bypass wishy-washy phrases.

3.) Be everywhere, or you are nowhere. For a line to make a lasting impression, it must appear at all customer touch points and ideally be the headline of every marketing promotion.

4.) Yes, it's an art. The best taglines come from individual flashes of inspiration.

So based on that advice, let's look at some of the most well-known taglines, and see if they measure up.

Tagline: "Just do it"
Company: Nike
1) It uses three very common words.
2) It has attitude, but how much more wishy-washy do you get?
3) To be sure, "Just do it" did appear everywhere; now just the Swoosh symbol does.
4) To be frank, "Just do it" sounds like a mid-level manager ordered around a peon, not an athletic company trying to inspire you.

Tagline: "Think different"
Company: Apple
1) It uses two very common words.
2) No attitude. This is a breezy suggestion made in passing.
3) Again, the tagline was on all of Apple's promotion.
4) Semi-remarkable, if only because it contrasted with competitor Microsoft's unwritten tagline, "Fall in line."

Tagline: "I'm lovin' it"
Company: McDonald's
1) Again, three very common words. A six-year old was just as likely to come up with this phrase than a 38-year-old veteran copywriter.
2) It makes you want to smile! How's that for attitude?
3) The ad spots featuring this tagline also featured people smiling, so it certainly created a 3-D marketing message.
4) They got Justin Timberlake to sing a song about it, what gets more art-y than that?