Thursday, August 21, 2014

Corporate Slogans - Examples of How Not To Write Them

Excerpt from the book Ogilvy on Advertising.

'The copy in most corporate advertisements is distinguished by a self-serving, flatulent, pomposity which defies reading and agencies waste endless hours concocting slogans of incredible fatuity. Consider these beauties.

Diamond Shamrock: The resourceful company

Honeywell: The automation company

Boise Cascade: A company worth looking at

Georgia Pacific: The growth company

Dravo: A company of uncommon enterprise

Textron: THE company

General Motors: People building transportation to serve people

Toyota:Serving people's needs in a hundred basic ways

Firestone: As long as Firestone keeps thinking about people, people will keep thinking about Firestone

Siemens: Siemens turns ideas into people

ITT: The best ideas are ideas that help people

General electric: 100 years of progress for people

Western Electric: W make things that bring people closer

US Steel: We're involved

Crown Zellerbach: We help make it happen

Sperry Rand: We understand how important it is to listen

Rockwell International: Where science gets down to business

I think I get what Ogilvy was getting at.

2 comments:

Madhav said...

Err... Hari, Whats wrong with them??

Harimohan said...

Madhav, for one they are not saying anything. The messages are too vague and do not provoke any emotion, or give information that makes one want to believe their claims, if one can call them that.
Some of the all time great ones - Rolls Royce comes to mind with its "At sixty miles an hour the loudest sound in this the new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock." Or "Have it your way" by Burger King. Or "Relax, its Fedex". The great ones evoke an instant emotion that could provoke an image and lead to action. Or so I think.