Both slogans and taglines are very important for a brand's positioning in the business. They only differ in their scope: a tagline represents an entire business, while a slogan usually only represents a single product or is a part of a particular advertising campaign. Dan Cullen-Shute, chief executive and co-founder of the independent advertising agency, Creature London, says, "We live in a world where brands think they need ‘purpose’." Brands want their audiences not only to perceive a product but also to connect it with a higher purpose. That's where slogans and taglines come in - the best ones capture this higher purpose in a memorable way. For example, everyone and their mothers can surely recall Nike's call to action "Just Do It" or Red Bull's promise to "give you wings." However, not all slogans seem to work. Some appear at bad timing - for example, the ad for Ayds - an appetite suppressant - aired a TV commercial along with the slogan "Lose weight deliciously with the aid of Ayds." Given that the brand's name sounded phonetically identical to AIDS and that it aired during the epidemic period of the disease... well, I guess you can sort this one out yourselves. Bored Panda has compiled for you a whole list of various brand's slogans and taglines that are just plain bad, weird or blatantly stupid, so scroll down below to see them all.
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The More You Play With It, The Harder It Gets
Sitting On Faces Since 2001
Nothing Sucks Like An Electrolux
Good Luck
I've tried their planes twice : it's the most honest advertisement in the world !
Something For Every Hole
After Dinner, You Can Stab Your Date
The Best Things In Life Come In Cellophane
Went Shopping And Found This Ad Promoting Safe Sex
Cheat On Your Girlfriend, Not On Your Workout
Men Are Better Than Women!
She Can Have A Tummy... And Still Look Yummy!
Imagine More Snacks Than You Can Imagine
Va-Dry-Na?
You Can Never Be Too Thin; Tastes As Good As Skinny Feels
It's Amazing What You Can Do With Two Fingers And A Thumb
The Beer That Beer Would Drink
If We Can't Have Fresh Air, At Least We Can Have Fresh Muffins
Look Like A Girl, Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man, Work Like A Boss
You Only Know What You're Made Of When You've Been Stuffed A Few Times
White Is Purity
Lose Weight Deliciously With The Aid Of Ayds
Approach Women Like You Do Wild Animals, With Caution And A Soothing Voice
#BecauseNoReason
Painfully Thick
Open Your Snack Hole
She's Seen More Ceilings... Than Michelangelo; You're Not Popular... You're Easy
It's Not For Women
Just look at those muscular ice cubes !! Women, beware!!! Danger !!!
I remember these tv ads... I think (key word there) they were trying to say 'men can drink diet soda too, and this version is so good, you won't want to share it ...'. It didn't work whatever their supposed goal was. And it was nasty tasting.
I was never under the impression that drinking diet soda was "unmanly" or that someone should express not wanting to share by calling out specific demographics.
Load More Replies...Not good to cut out half the population when you try to sell a product but worth a try I guess
"It's not for women... because women have taste. Unlike this crappy soda."
This bombed after the first chauvinist commercial and they couldn't come back from that!
Dr Pepper is one of my favorite pops. I'm not sure anymore after this. Very misogynistic.
It's not for women...because it's stupid to advertise a soda to one gender
Imagine the genius advertising executive who thought it was a good idea to tell 51% of the population not to buy your product.
It's actually brilliant. "You think YOU are going to tell ME that I can't have it!", reverse psychology move + free advertising every time someone posts to complain.
They can keep that drink, its original version and any others, because Dr. Pepper is horrible tasting! Like carbonated prune juice! YUCK!
Wouldn't the slogan "It's not for teh gays" be better? I mean, it expresses the same insecurities while excluding only say 10% instead of 50% of potential clients... because some women would be similarly convinced, "wow, I just drink this and that self-confidence I always wanted will come to me? Count me in!".
Spike Up Your Best Friend's Eggnog When They're Not Looking
What Can Brown Do For You?
I want to get a shirt that says that now cuz I'm brown and I can do a whole lot
Note: this post originally had 49 images. It’s been shortened to the top 29 images based on user votes.
Some are plain genius and others are just idioticly funny (i spelled that wrong give me a break)
And some are just horribly misogynistic and racist.
Load More Replies...I agree, it would be helpful because some (like the Ayds candy) were around well before their names or their taglines developed different meanings.
Load More Replies...Oh I wish they had put the "not beersies" ad! It was a "drink water instead of beer" drink responsibly campaign, but people kept going into liquor stores and supermarkets looking to buy "not beersies" XD
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11371914
Load More Replies...The Dr. Pepper one reminds me of a promotional campaign done by Yorkie chocolate bars here in the UK (no idea if they exist elsewhere). Basically, the bars are made up of segments of pretty thick chocolate chunks that women apparently couldn't eat, so the tagline in their commercials was "Yorkie - It's not for girls". Oh, and McCoys crisps use/used the tagline "Man crisps", also because they were slightly larger than other brands.
The thing with the Yorkie ads was that they were so obviously tongue-in-cheek that nobody could sensibly be offended, you could tell that they were poking fun at the boys who wanted to keep their chocolate to themselves ;-)
Load More Replies...It’s really unfair to view vintage ads under a modern lens and call it inappropriate. Times were different as were people.
In my opinion, the sad side of the story is that those slogans made because the society is like those slogans and the hidden messages of sex, racism and misogynistic.
Anyone else remember those awful "man up" ads that Miller Lite aired about ten years ago?
I guess they figure "There's no such thing as bad publicity." I beg to differ - several of these woulds turn me right off their product/service.
Load More Replies...I'd think they were more clever finds if they weren't done on purpose.
Some are plain genius and others are just idioticly funny (i spelled that wrong give me a break)
And some are just horribly misogynistic and racist.
Load More Replies...I agree, it would be helpful because some (like the Ayds candy) were around well before their names or their taglines developed different meanings.
Load More Replies...Oh I wish they had put the "not beersies" ad! It was a "drink water instead of beer" drink responsibly campaign, but people kept going into liquor stores and supermarkets looking to buy "not beersies" XD
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11371914
Load More Replies...The Dr. Pepper one reminds me of a promotional campaign done by Yorkie chocolate bars here in the UK (no idea if they exist elsewhere). Basically, the bars are made up of segments of pretty thick chocolate chunks that women apparently couldn't eat, so the tagline in their commercials was "Yorkie - It's not for girls". Oh, and McCoys crisps use/used the tagline "Man crisps", also because they were slightly larger than other brands.
The thing with the Yorkie ads was that they were so obviously tongue-in-cheek that nobody could sensibly be offended, you could tell that they were poking fun at the boys who wanted to keep their chocolate to themselves ;-)
Load More Replies...It’s really unfair to view vintage ads under a modern lens and call it inappropriate. Times were different as were people.
In my opinion, the sad side of the story is that those slogans made because the society is like those slogans and the hidden messages of sex, racism and misogynistic.
Anyone else remember those awful "man up" ads that Miller Lite aired about ten years ago?
I guess they figure "There's no such thing as bad publicity." I beg to differ - several of these woulds turn me right off their product/service.
Load More Replies...I'd think they were more clever finds if they weren't done on purpose.