The Blog on Branding

Slogans Hall of Fame – Best and Worst

Who does this describe? “He keeps going and going and going.”

Yep. The Energizer bunny. There are many slogans like this that are “finger lickin’ good” (KFC). Follow their example, and you could be a millionaire someday – or maybe tomorrow. If you’re lucky enough.

“He keeps going and going and going…”


For more details:

• Best advertising slogans
• Pittsburgh advertising
• 2008 best advertising slogan
• The worst 2008 advertising slogan

Best Advertising Slogans

Let’s start with the good news first. Here’s the top 10 advertising slogans ever made according to Ad Age:

1. “Diamonds are forever” – DeBeers

   A truthful slogan; diamonds do last forever. Every time I read this I’m reminded of the Kanye West song. Obviously, this slogan made very good boyfriends and husbands go out and purchase their girlfriends or wives some very good jewelry. Yay for you, very good men of the world.

2. “Just do it” – Nike

   Wow, how simple. Just do what? Just go out and buy Nike shoes and apparel. Then just go out and play sports. Then just become the next Michael Jordan.

3. “The pause that refreshes” – Coca-Cola

   Maybe you’re pausing to go to the store to buy that tasty drink. Or, maybe you’re pausing to go to the vending machine for that amazing drink. Or, maybe you’re pausing to drink that yummy drink. Wherever and whenever you’re pausing, make sure it’s a Coke, because after all, they want to refresh you.

4. “Tastes great, less filling” – Miller Lite

   Showing a benefit of drinking a beer that won’t contribute to a huge calorie intake. If you stick to drinking these through the years, you may get out of having a beer gut.

5. “We try harder” – Avis

   They try harder than all of the other car rental companies. Because they said so.

6. “Good to the last drop” – Maxwell House

   Every time I read or hear this, I picture someone in the desert opening their canteen, only to find one more drop of Maxwell House coffee left. I’m not quite sure why.

7. “Breakfast of champions” – Wheaties

   Wheaties is such a cutesy name. But when you say it’s the breakfast of champions, you rethink that thought.

8. “Does she…or doesn’t she?” – Clairol

Does she…or doesn’t she have dyed hair…or natural hair? It seems like what a bored cashier would ask themselves when women come into the store and no one’s in line.

9. “When it rains it pours” – Morton Salt

   It reminds me of some rotten little kid going into the store with their mommy, opening a box of this stuff and shaking it all over the place.

10. “Where’s the beef?” – Wendy’s

    So much better than their current tagline- “It’s way better than fast food” – which I mention later. This is a good ‘ole 80’s slogan.

“‘The breakfast of champions’ is one of the most recognizable slogans.”

Pittsburgh Advertising

Time to rep the home town!

• “We Will” – Pittsburgh Pirates

  Bad. We will what? We will win a game? Perhaps someday.

• “It’s a Great Day for Hockey!” - Pittsburgh Penguins

  Eh. Okay, so I know some famous guy by the name of Badger Bob Johnson came up with this one. It’s not bad, but most of the games are at night. Oops.

• “Imagine what you can do here.” – Pittsburgh

  Cool! Way to bring people into our city. I like this one. It’s to the point. It doesn’t hide that Pittsburgh isn’t, yes, as cool as some of those bigger cities, and yeah it’s in western PA (watch out, I might pull a Murtha quote on you), but it’s still eligible to give us enough entertainment, jobs and schooling. Get past the Pittsburghese, and you can imagine a lot of things.

2008 Best Advertising Slogan

“Yes We Can” – Obama Campaign ‘08

Talk about winning the election by a landslide – the vote was literally “Baracked”. Way more than 270 electoral votes were made for our new president. Yes, he’s an extremely smart and well-spoken man, but a good campaign is a must when you want to win the job of running the country. “Yes We Can” is so simple and stylish – it’s just…amazing and loaded. Yes, we can do so many things to fix this country, the country that’s so economically screwed. “Yes We Can” is ultimately endless. “Yes We Can” is genius. And this is what helped Obama win. Simplicity! And being simple when making a slogan is probably the easiest thing you can do. If the campaigning people can do it, you can do it…right? Right.

“Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ campaign was simple and effective.”

When I searched for Obama’s slogan on Google, I found an article that stating the words weren’t his own (or the campaign’s), and that they were originally used for the president of Iran. These words were “We Can”. But it doesn’t have that flick to it, that sparkle. By adding a simple “Yes”, it sounds so much better.

Do I think they stole the slogan from the Iranian campaigners? Nooooo. When I typed in “We Can” into the Google search bar, other stuff came up, too.

So, maybe whoever was assigned to come up with Obama’s slogan, who was totally bored, or maybe hungover, or maybe just tired, who maybe even was preoccupied with something else, decided that it would be easy to just type in a random jumble of words into the Google space bar and see what turned out the best. Hmm, “We Can” gets so many results! Maybe we should add a “Yes” to that. And it was born.

I’m definitely not making fun of it. Using the Google spacebar is probably one of the best ways to come up with tagline. This is how many bloggers get their blogs (and webmasters, too) to the tops of the lists and much publicity. It’s how you find the best of the best keywords out there for all the other little keywords in keyword land to see.

The Worst 2008 Advertising Slogan

“It’s Waaaay Better than Fast Food. It’s Wendy’s” – Wendy’s

UGHHH!! HORRIBLE. BORINGGGGG. UGLY. Just plain bad. I’m sorry – what are you again? What does your company serve?

Last time I checked, it was little square burgers (which makes me laugh about their old tag line) on greasy buns and french fries, that when served to me, half of them end up on the floor, giving me a realistically small fry when I asked for a medium one. Uh. No. What’s wayyyyyyyyyy or waaaayyy or way. better than fast food? Anything but fast food! Jeez, what’s way better than clogging your arteries with America’s finest fatty formula and people who just couldn’t get their asses to or through higher education serving you? Seriously now.

By Emily McHugh