“Don’t leave home without it.”
“Taste Great. Less Filling.”
“Can you hear me now?”
“Where’s the beef?”
We’ve just thrown at you four unforgettable examples (we could add dozens more without breaking a sweat) of the enduring power of mass-media advertising. Just take a second to appreciate the stickiness of these ear-worms. They’re representative of campaigns that ended years, sometimes decades ago; yet, unless you’re hearing them here for the first time (in which case you’re a hermit or a youngster. Or both?)...then they’re every bit as familiar to you as they are to us. More than that—you can probably hear or see, in your mind’s eye at least, the original flight of ads that embedded them in your consciousness, and in our collective unconscious.
And that’s exactly what happens to these classics, wouldn’t you agree? Eventually, they belong to all of us. They become cultural markers, very often evolved beyond, in due time, the corporate identity from whence they came: “Bet you can’t eat just one” “Have it your way” “Would you like fries with that?” “Lather. Rinse. Repeat.”
These are the phenomena that we hold up as rebuttal to those who say that advertising has no relevance. And we reference them to rebuke, as strongly as we can, those who claim advertising has no power. We humbly submit that advertising like this, lines like these, surpass marketing and mercantilism, and become part of our popular imagination.
“It’s the real thing.”
“Good to the last drop.”
“What’s in your wallet?”
You must realize, then, that this is an ongoing process. That even as the ad-memes of yesteryear endure (“My bologna has a first name!”), contemporary ones are implanting themselves today (“So easy a caveman can do it!”). The cycle repeats.
So what’s the takeaway? For most of us, it’s that our culture is alive, vibrant, ever-changing—replete with not just art, music, and literature, but also with the provocative creativity found in our popular media. With advertising.
And for a select few of us: marketers who’d love to harness this collective chorus, the takeaway is imperative and pithy: Just do it.
The C4:
1. A diamond is forever.
Succinct and catchy advertising slogans endure. They make the jump from media to imagination, and they stay there.
2. Plop plop, fizz fizz.
Repetition is key. Marketers jumpstart this phenomenon by harnessing all available channels to spread the message.
3. But I’m worth it.
Don’t forget value and quality. What you’re selling must be worthy of the consumer’s attention.
4. Time to make the doughnuts.
It takes hard work, and it takes time. Stick to it and you’ll gain customers, move product, capture
market-share. And who knows? Maybe you’ll create that one catchy line they’ll still be raving about a hundred years from now.
