Here are 101 famous advertising slogans in chronological order, together with the dates they were produced and their Advertising Agencies – you might be surprised at how old some of them are – like the 1923 Rice Krispies advert ” Snap! Crackle! Pop!” which is still running. But my personal favorite is Smirnoff’s 1971 advert. Whats yours?
“All the news that’s fit to print.”
New York Times 1896 (Author – Adolph S. Ochs – Proprietor)
“Ask the man who owns one.”
Packard cars 1902 (Author – J W Packard – Proprietor)
“When it rains, it pours!”
Morton Salt 1911 (Advertising Agency – N W Ayer)
“Good to the last drop.”
Maxwell House Coffee 1915
“Say it with flowers”
Interflora 1917 (Advertising Agency – PF O’Keefe Advertising Agency)
“I’d walk a mile for a Camel.“
Camel Cigarettes 1921 (Advertising Agency – N W Ayer)
“The Eyes and Ears of the World.”
Paramount Pictures 1927
“Guinness is good for you.”
Guinness 1929 (Advertising Agency – S H Benson)
“My goodness, my Guinness!”
Guinness 1931 (Advertising Agency – S H Benson)
“Snap! Crackle! Pop!”
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies 1932 (Advertising Agency – J Walter Thompson)
“Safety fast.”
MG 1933
“Don’t be vague. Ask for Haig.”
Haig Scotch Whisky 1934 (Advertising Agency – Lord & Thomas)
“If you want to get ahead, get a hat.”
Hat Council 1934
“Breakfast of champions.”
Wheaties 1935 (Advertising Agency – Blackett Sample Hummert)
“M’m! M’m! Good!”
Campbell’s Soup 1935 (Advertising Agency – BBDO)
“Careless Talk Costs Lives.”
UK Ministry of Information 1940
“Think.”
IBM 1941
“A diamond is forever.”
De Beers 1948 (Advertising Agency – N W Ayer)
“A little dab’ll do ya.”
Brylcreem 1949 (Advertising Agency – Kenyon & Eckhardt)
“Finger lickin’ good.”
Kentucky Fried Chicken 1952 (Advertising Agency – Ogilvy & Mather)
“The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
M&M’s 1954 (Advertising Agency – Ted Bates)
“You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.”
Pepsodent 1956 (Advertising Agency – Foote Cone & Belding)
“Go to work on an egg.”
UK Egg Marketing Board 1957 (Advertsing Agency – Mather & Crowther)
“Have a break. Have a Kit-Kat.”
Kit Kat 1957 (Advertising Agency – J Walter Thompson)
“Drink a pinta milka day.”
UK National Milk Publicity Council 1958
“Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet.”
Hamlet 1960 (Advertising Agency – Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners)
“The greatest tragedy is indifference.”
Red Cross 1961
“Think Small.”
Volkswagen 1962 (Advertising Agency – Doyle Dane Bernbach)
“We try harder.”
Avis 1962 (Advertising Agency – Doyle Dane Bernbach)
“Schhh … You-Know-Who.”
Schweppes 1962
“Does she or doesn’t she?”
Clairol 1964 (Advertising Agency – Foote Cone & Belding)
“Put a tiger in your tank.”
Esso 1964 (Advertising Agency – McCann-Erickson)
“Let your fingers do the walking.”
Yellow Pages 1964 (Advertising Agency – Geers Gross)
“A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play.”
Mars 1965 (Advertising Agency – D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles)
“You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give you the world.”
WINS Radio, New York 1965
“Fly the friendly skies.”
United Airlines 1966 (Advertising Agency – Leo Burnett)
“Nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from the oven.”
Pillsbury 1966
“Beanz Meanz Heinz.“
Heinz 1967 (Advertising Agency – Young & Rubicam)
“Because I’m worth it.”
L’Oréal 1967 (Advertising Agency – McCann-Erickson)
“When you got it, flaunt it.”
Braniff Airlines 1967 (Advertising Agency – Lois Pitts Gershon Pon)
“And all because the lady loves Milk Tray.”
Cadburys 1968 (Advertising Agency – Leo Burnett)
“Say it with flowers.”
Interflora 1971
“Accountancy was my life until I discovered Smirnoff.”
Smirnoff Vodka 1971
“The quick picker upper.”
Bounty 1971 (Advertising Agency – Dancer Fitzgerald Sample)
“Nothing runs like a Deere”
John Deere 1972 (Advertising Agency – Gardner)
“Merrill Lynch is bullish on America.”
Merrill Lynch 1973 (Advertising Agency – Ogilvy & Mather)
“Have it your way.“
Burger King 1973 (Advertising Agency – BBDO)
“Probably the best beer in the world.”
Carlsberg 1973 (Advertising Agency – Saatchi & Saatchi)
“Lipsmackin’ thirstquenchin’ acetastin’ motivatin’ goodbuzzin’ cooltalkin’ highwalkin’ fastlivin’ evergivin’ coolfizzin’ Pepsi.”
Pepsi Cola 1973 (Advertising Agency – Boase Massimi Pollitt)
“Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.“
Heineken 1974 (Advertising Agency – Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners)
“For mash get Smash.“
Smash instant mash potatoes 1974 (Advertising Agency – Boase Massimi Pollitt)
“Don’t leave home without it.”
American Express 1975
“The ultimate driving machine.”
BMW 1975 (Advertising Agency – Ammirati & Puris)
“Tastes so good cats ask for it by name.”
Meow Mix 1976 (Advertising Agency – Della Femina Travisano)
“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.”
Alka Seltzer 1976 (Advertising Agency – Jack Tinker & Partners)
“The Citi never sleeps.”
Citibank 1977 (Advertising Agency – Wells Rich Greene)
“I love New York.”
New York City 1977 (Advertising Agency – Wells Rich Greene)
“Reach out and touch someone.”
AT&T 1979 (Advertising Agency – N W Ayer)
“I liked it so much I bought the company.”
Remington shavers 1979
“Hand-built by robots.”
Fiat Strada 1979 (Advertising Agency – Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners)
“H2Eau.” Perrier 1980
“Reassuringly expensive.”
Stella Artois 1981 (Advertising Agency – Lowe Howard Spink)
“Be all you can be.”
US Army 1981 (Advertising Agency – N W Ayer)
“The appliance of science.”
Zanussi 1981 (Advertising Agency – Geers Gross)
“When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight.”
Federal Express 1982 (Advertising Agency – Ally & Gargano)
“Milk’s gotta lotta bottle.”
Milk Marketing Board 1982 (Advertising Agency – BMP DDB)
“The antidote for civilization.”
Club Med 1982 (Advertising Agency – Publicis)
“The world’s favourite airline.”
British Airways 1983 (Advertising Agency – Saatchi & Saatchi)
“Vorsprung dursh technik.”
Audi 1984 (Advertising Agency – BBH)
“Say no to no say.”
Greater London Council 1984 (Advertising Agency – Boase Massimi Pollit)
“Raise your hand if you’re sure.”
Sure 1984 (Advertising Agency – Wells Rich Greene)
“Hello Tosh, gotta Toshiba?”
Toshiba 1984 (Advertising Agency – Gold Greenlees Trott)
“Don’t just book it. Thomas Cook it.”
Thomas Cook 1984 (Advertising Agency – Wells Rich Greene)
“Where’s the beef?”
Wendy’s 1984 (Advertising Agency – Dancer Fitzgerald Sample)
“We’re Getting There”
British Rail 1984 (Advertising Agency – Grounds Morris Smith)
“Are you a Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut case?”
Cadburys 1985 (Advertising Agency – Young & Rubicam)
“It’s a lot less bovver than a hover.”
Qualcast Concord 1985 (Advertising Agency – WCRS)
“Australians wouldn’t give a Castlemaine XXXX for anything else.”
Castlemaine beer 1986 (Advertising Agency – Saatchi & Saatchi)
“It is. Are you?”
The Independent 1987 (Advertising Agency – Saatchi & Saatchi)
“Just do it.”
Nike 1988 (Advertising Agency – Wieden & Kennedy)
“Its everywhere you want to be.”
Visa 1988 (Advertsing Agency – BBDO)
“A newspaper, not a snoozepaper.”
The Mail on Sunday 1988 (Advertising Agency – Lowe Howard Spink)
“I bet he drinks Carling Black Label.”
Carling 1989 (Advertsing Agency – WCRS)
“Cats like Felix like Felix.”
Felix 1989 (Advertising Agency – BMP DDB)
“I think, therefore IBM.”
IBM 1989 (Advertising Agency – Ogilvy & Mather)
“Intel inside.”
Intel 1990
“Free enterprise with every copy.”
The Economist 1990 (Advertising Agency – AMV BBDO)
“It’s good to talk.”
British Telecom 1994 (Advertising Agency – Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO)
“You know when you’ve been Tango’d.”
Tango 1994 (Advertising Agency – HHCL)
“Drivers wanted.”
Volkswagen 1995 (Advertising Agency – Arnold Communications)
“The future is bright. The future’s Orange.”
Orange 1996 (Advertising Agency – WCRS)
“Absolut perfection.”
Absolut Vodka 1998
“Think different.”
Apple Macintosh 1998 (Advertising Agency – Chiat / Day)
“It’s a Skoda. Honest.”
Skoda 2000 (Advertising Agency – Fallon)
“Be the first to know.”
CNN 2002
“10,000 songs in your pocket.”
Apple ipod 2004
“Buy it Sell it. Love it.”
Ebay 2005
“So where the bloody hell are you?”
Australian Tourist Commission 2006
Undated Adverts
“Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux.”
Electrolux 1960’s (Advertising Agency – Cogent Elliot)
“There are a million and one excuses for not wearing a safety belt. Some are real killers.”
American Safety Council
“Moms depend on Kool-Aid like kids depend on Moms.”
Kool-Aid
Famous Advertising Copywriters:-
Salmon Rushdie used to be an advertising copy writer. He worked for three advertising agencies, Ogilvy & Mather, Sharp McManus and Ayer Barker Hegermann., before becoming a full-time writer. He created the fresh cream cakes slogan “naughty but nice”. The reason the slogan worked so well was because it gave consumers permission to break the rules for the sake of pleasure. The advert was originally rejected by the client because they were worried that it would associate their product with getting fat, but a year later, the client relented (perhaps the original manager moved on, Rushdie still doesn’t know) and the slogan became one of the UK greats. See it in action here http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlq0196ulmI and http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=voPzNTO9uJE&feature=related. Rushdie also created the “irresistibubble” slogan for Aero chocolate bars.
Of His copywriting days, Rushdie has said “Beyond that, it taught me to write like a job. If you have, as my sweating friend did, the client coming in that afternoon for his new campaign, you can’t not have it. You have to have it. What’s more, it has to be good. You can’t afford temperament, you can’t afford days of creative anguish; you have to sit there and do your job and you have to do it like a job, get it done on time and well.” “I now write exactly like that. I write like a job. I sit down in the morning and I do it. And I don’t miss deadlines. I do feel that a lot of the professional craft of writing is something I learnt from those years in advertising and I’ll always be grateful for it.”
Another former advertising copywriter turned novelist, Fay Weldon, reputedly coined the phrase “Go to work on an egg”.
Best Advertising Story
When British Rail, one of the largest railway networks in the world, decided they wanted to have an advertising campaign to improve their poor image in the early 1980’s they asked several agencies to pitch for the job. One of the agencies arranged a meeting at their own offices after they had finalized their pitch. The BR managers turned up at the agreed meeting time and the receptionist showed them into a meeting room and told them that the advertising team would be with them shortly.
Whilst they waited, they slowly began to notice how dirty the room was – there were stale cigarettes stubs in the ashtray, the room smelt badly, there was litter on the floor, sticky seats and the windows were unwashed. After 20 minutes, they began to get impatient and one of them went out to speak to the receptionist who told them that unfortunately the team had been delayed but would be with them shortly. After another 20 minutes and, growing ever more impatient, one of them again left the room and asked the receptionist what was going on. The receptionist rather bolshily told them that they would be seen to soon. Confused, the BR manager returned to the meeting room where the conversation inevitable focused on how unbelievably stupid it was for the advertising agency to treat important clients this way and how they couldn’t understand how this large advertising agency even had any clients at all who were willing to put up with this sort of behaviour.
Another 20 minutes past and the managers from BR decided that enough was enough. They all got up and opened the door to leave the room. Outside, the Advertising Team were waiting with their message – You now feel like your customers do. This is what the public think of your service. You’re dirty, you’re late and you’re rude – but we can help you.
“We’re getting there” was born. The slogan worked because it implicitly acknowledged the existing failings but promised that the organization was working on improvements.
Some more advertising resources:-
http://www.adslogans.co.uk/site/pages/home/hall-of-fame.php
http://www.ad-mad.co.uk/slogans
http://www.theactivitydirectorsoffice.com/AdvertisingSlogans.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1357091.stm
http://www.businessandleadership.com/marketing/news/article/11676/marketing/a-writers-tale
Let me know if you can think of some more and I’ll add them on!
Tags: advertising, advertising agencies, advertising firms, advertising slogans, famous advertising slogans, slogans
Dueconsideration's Weblog 
November 21, 2008 at 4:09 pm |
Excellent list. Really enjoyable read.
November 22, 2008 at 8:46 am |
Love the best ad story – real cool. They took ’em.
November 29, 2008 at 4:24 pm |
Awesome dude!