Taglines Are Getting Dumber & Dumberer
Remember when Taglines used to make sense? No more.
A tagline can make a company. Nike: Just Do It. FedEx: When It Absolutely Positively Has To Be There Overnight. And, my all-time favorite:
OK, now to the Dumbness. Coke introduced a new worldwide tagline earlier this year:
Way back last Century, Coke’s tagline was: The Real Thing. Not a “WOW” tagline but it at least positioned its brown sugar water as superior to other brands of brown sugar water. It made sense.
Real Magic? Coke doesn’t even contain Real Sugar anymore. (It did in the 70s when it was The Real Thing.) What the fuck does it even mean? It’s utterly senseless and disconnected from reality. How the fuck did client and ad agency arrive at these two words after—you can be assured—many, many long meetings? Jesus Diabetus Christ it is fucking idiotic.
I don’t know…deer hunting? (tis the season) Glenfiddich means “valley of the deer” in Scottish Gaelic. That explains the logo. It doesn’t explain this intimidating big buck seemingly asking me where the fuck I’m going next. My answer, to avoid being gored: “the nearest liquor store or bar”. Looks like it could be a pretty long walk, though.
Do…what exactly? In Extra’s new Holiday commercial (not linking to it) the “It” seems to mean: say something offensive. But my first thought upon seeing/hearing this tagline was: Fucking. As I learned watching Beavis & Butt-Head, “Do It” means Sex. If that’s what Extra means here, well that at least makes some sense; chewing it maybe makes your breath less shitty before doing it. But this is definitely NOT what Extra means, especially in “Woke” 2021. Taglines must stand on their own. And this one, on its own, is rhyming Meaninglessness.
I guess “kills the germs that cause bad breath” was starting too feel to intelligent to the brand. So they’re out with a new tag targeting the lowest dumbest common denominator.
Lastly, not a new tagline. But it is maybe the most inaccurate, and therefore one of the dumbest, tagline in advertising history.