English Version | First you snub it, then you luv it...

This is more or less what happens with slogans, at least the most emblematic and effective ones: at first glance, they seem to be just bespoke phrases for a brand, and in less than nothing they infiltrate our conversations like they're our own words. “Got milk?” 'Cuz this text will go down smoothly. Artwork by João Oliveira.

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"Who brought it, who brought it?" ("Quem trouxe, quem trouxe?") It wasn't Pingo Doce, like the brand says in its current commercial, it was Vogue, with the precious contribution of the iconic publicist Edson Athayde, when imagining this article about the slogans that we keep in mind and that crash everyday conversations, even when they are no longer on advertisements.“I'm from a time…” ("Eu ainda sou do tempo..." as advertised by Continente) in which we said “Wasssuuuuupppppp?" ("Tô xim, é p'ra mim”), thanks to an advertisement by then Telecel (now Vodafone); I'm from a time when everyone was "Connecting People", thanks to Nokia's heyday in the telecommunications market; and the time when you always knew it was 4:30 pm when you opened a certain low-calorie carbonated soda because that was “Coca-Cola Light Time.” Perhaps in an issue dedicated to quotes and the power of words, one may think to also include, without hesitating, popular sayings and expressions, but slogans and other phrases taken from advertisements are not the first examples in mind. Which is curious and incongruous, because many of them have gained the status of everyday expressions that we don't know how to live without. For example, did you know that “first you snub it, then you luv it” ("Primeiro estranha-se, depois entranha-se") is a claim imagined by Fernando Pessoa for Coca-Cola? Created in the late 1920s, when the writer was working at the ad agency Hora, the claim commissioned by the brand, but did not reach the masses since the commercialization of the soft drink was forbidden at the time. One, however, has certainly used this expression numerous times in dialogues. Such as “what is national is good” ("o que é Nacional é bom") — whenever a Portuguese person wins an award, for example, the national brand Nacional helps with the rallying cry with its slogan — or even “there is no whiter white” ("Branco mais branco não há", from detergent brand Tide) and “cotton speaks the truth” ("O algodão não engana", by Sonasol)… They penetrate our vocabulary, permeating the most mundane conversations, remaining relevant beyond its advertising intent, sticking to our brains and living on its own for years, first for nostalgic reasons, then organically from generation to generation. “Advertising integrates what we call mass communication. It's part of pop culture”, explains Edson Athayde. Maybe you don't remember where this or that slogan mentioned here ir from, just because perhaps it's not from your time, but you'll know right away that the Brazilian Edson Athayde is a guru of Advertising. Now CEO and Creative Director of FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding) Lisbon, his long CV in the industry serves him (and us) as a platform for these expert shares. “It ends up being part of our conversations, it marks an era. Children love slogans and jingles because of the repetition and when they grow up they like to remember the past through these elements. Slogans are and always have been memes, even before that term was invented,” he says.

And what exactly are these memes of yore, aka slogans? “It's a verbal synthesis of a brand's discourse. It's a summary of the personality of a product or the differentiating proposal of a company”, summarizes Athayde. Which means that a slogan, in short, has the herculean task of reflecting the spirit of a brand, getting engraved in people's minds in a positive way in association with the product and selling it, all in static advertising spots of a image or dynamic in X seconds. No wonder there are professionals and creatives who are specialized in this. They don't do it out of the blue — there are guidelines that can help drive the success of a claim but, as guidelines are, they are not watertight and infallible, even if they achieve some consensus in the area. It is said that short and simple works best, that being consistent is imperative and that it should be a slogan that adds to the logo and that resonates with the essence of the brand, focusing on differentiation and on what the brand or product has to offer. It is also important to ensure that it lasts over time and works by itself, without the need for (large) contextualization, and that it pays attention to the target audience, of course (which can dictate the type of speech and vocabulary), triggering emotions, identification, etc. . “In advertising, all rules comprise exceptions. Each case is different. But we can say that a slogan is usually short, often sonorous, and it can even use the rhyme resource, it must be easy to remember and repeat”, simplifies the publicist. “Over the years I've had the pleasure of creating some slogans that have lasted a long time, some for decades. For example: for a remedy that clears the nose: ‘Dazex do Dariz’ [Dazex for the Dose]. For an economics magazine: ‘Fortuna. Leia a nossa, faça uma' [Fortune. Read ours, make one]. For Telecel (now Vodafone): ‘Telecel. Onde você estiver, está lá.' [Telecel. Wherever you are, it's there] For Guterres' candidacy for government: 'Guterres. Razão e Coração.' [Guterres. Reason and Heart]." And we can add other ones of the kind, although not by Edson, but more examples that fit these parameters: “Just do it”, by Nike, and “Impossible is nothing”, by Adidas, translate, above everything, a message of overcoming, of conquest, of challenge, which is what both labels whose core is sport want to convey — that we all achieve, that we are all athletes, we just have to take the first step. "Because I'm worth it", by L'Oréal, is another example of copy that follows the guidelines, translating the claim into a challenge to self-care, to personal care, which is the essence of the products they sell, no matter how comprehensive their range is; “I'm lovin' it”, by McDonald's, encourages you to enjoy yourself (with its hamburgers) and “Red Bull gives you wings”… well, it doesn't encourage anyone to fly per se, but to understand that it gives you stamina and belief that you can conquer anything with the right energy (a claim that not only describes the drink's stimulating purpose, but also links it to extreme sports, which the brand does not shy away from promoting and sponsoring). A handful of examples that fit this checklist of rules, however, do not validate it as fundamental, because advertising is full of references that work out fine and do not comply with the rules.“It melts in your mouth and not in your hands” isn't the shortest claim ever, but few will be unaware that this is how M&M's work. “Maybe it's her. Maybe it's Maybelline” is another example of the genre. “I have a special thing for the slogan of a Japanese electronics brand that in Brazil used the following slogan: ‘Toshiba. Because our Japanese are smarter than other Japanese people'. It also shows that a slogan can be great and extensive at the same time”, says Edson Athayde. Of course, in the end, creativity plays an equally or more important role, being able to override any of the rules and succeed; or follow the rules and fail. “I remember a slogan for the launch of the American soda Mountain Dew in Brazil”, shares the expert. “As the name was unpronounceable by the average Brazilian, lots of money was spent on a slogan that was ‘Mountain Dew. Read mutandiu'. Instead of selling the product, they tried to explain a name. Nobody buys a soda because they learned to say its name.”

“Advertising is nothing more than commercial rhetoric translated into entertainment. So it's manipulative by definition. But it's one thing to seduce someone with an image or speech. Another is being able to brainwash someone. Advertising does not have that power. If it is used to propagate lies, sooner or later it will go wrong. Or very wrong” - Edson Athayde

A slogan that lasts over time also leaves a greater impression, because it makes the consumer getting used to hearing it, but the longevity factor does not determine its iconicity: if it doesn't speak to the target audience, it doesn't impact the audience, it lasting throughout the time only means it aged and not brand identity. Particularly because there are ever-changing slogans and taglines that work for some brands, even if they are relatively fleeting. And a strong, veteran slogan is also difficult to change, even though many brands do so to reflect some kind of change in philosophy or structure, or to update themselves, or simply to reflect their evolution. But it's not impossible to make this change successfully, as evidenced, for example, by the jingle that leads this article: “Who brought it, who brought it” is from a brand used to catchy slogans — “It feels good to pay so little” ["Sabe bem pagar tão pouco"] and “Pingo Doce, come here” [Pingo Doce, venha cá], for example, preceded this one that now lasts in our heads and in our daily conversations. And then there are still those who last in time without even needing to change their ad, because it is not so much the slogan, but the kick-off that introduces it: we all know that a Ferrero Rocher “satisfies the desire for refinement”, but what really has a Pavlovian effect on us from this chocolate is “Ambrose, I feel like having something” and “what I really want is something good.” In fact, what we really wanted was space and time to exchange even more pennants about advertising references that trigger memories as much as smiles. If they let us, this article would be powered by Duracell: ‘And it lasts and it lasts and it lasts and it lasts….’ ["E dura e dura e dura e dura..."]. But “there's a line that separates” this author's will from the physical limit of the paper.

Why is this small (or not so small) sentence so important for a brand? Because if the logo is the recognizable image of a label, the slogan, tagline and even the jingle (a kind of sung slogan, which stays in one's head, also lasting for its musicality) are what bring it to life, sound, in a way, description and identification. In doing so, the slogan is operating on a larger dimension than just a creative synopsis: it's putting it not just on the tip of the tongue, but in the consumer's mind. An effective slogan or expression speaks to the customer, but also to employees, investors and brand directors, creating a sense of comfort and familiarity around the name. Why? Because, when effective, slogans create a predisposition of affection or identification on the part of the consumer in relation to the brand, without even realizing it, often resorting to humor and the intelligent use of persuasive vocabulary, either by the power of the words or by the resonance it has in us. They entertain us, they give us mottos and sayings and expressions that we turn into our own, they stir our psyche, like a good conversation, and therefore, without realizing it, they attach us to the brand. Which is not to say that they manipulate us—only that they seduce us, like a good pick up line. “Advertising is nothing more than commercial rhetoric translated into entertainment” says Edson. “So it's manipulative by definition. But it's one thing to seduce someone with an image or speech. Another is being able to brainwash someone. Advertising does not have that power. If it is used to propagate lies, sooner or later it will go wrong. Or very wrong”, he points out. The textual content of the slogan is not its only weapon — the way it reaches the consumer has to work in collusion with the words that compose it: “Everything can die on the beach if it is not properly explored, presented, sold”, warns Athayde. “The slogan may be brilliant, but if no one is aware of it, nothing can be done. The same is true when the product is, after all, no big deal. The slogan may help someone to buy it once, but no one will do it twice in case of dissatisfaction”. That is, the power of the word works, but not if the product doesn't honor it. 

These examples are not really recent, although they coexist in the memory of many readers, and they arrived in an era with different archetypes from today. In an age of social networks and infinite scrolling (the Yellow Pages did futurology by remembering “Follow your fingers” ["Vá pelos seus dedos"], in 1987), perhaps a lot has changed in the way of brand positioning and tagline creation, but the truth is that slogans and advertising have always given room for flexibility, above all because they serve to respond to the market and the market has always been volatile and constantly evolving, so slogans have, as always, had room for manoeuver: “The creation of slogans goes through cyclical fashions. There are times when they tend to be shorter. In others they are longer. Rhyming slogans used to be fashionable, today they sound a little old-fashioned, tomorrow I don't know. Perhaps because of the need for the speed of the digital world, we are in an era of increasingly direct and short slogans, many of which are not very funny. It will change soon”, assures the publicist. We believe him. But can they still endure as before? Be iconic like those that have become a kind of popular saying? Are great slogans still being made, or has the Internet drowned it out, spreading millions of catch-phrases that sink each other? “Everything in the world today is more ephemeral. Brands also undergo faster change. But the real big brands change more slowly, some never change. Consumers like stability, marketers tend to get tired of things ahead of time”, he assures. Could this text have been written without Edson Athayde? “It could, but it wouldn't be the same.” ["Poder, podia, mas não seria a mesma coisa."] (finishing this off with this iconic punchline from Zon, circa 2009).

Translated from the original on The Quote Issue, from April 2022.Full credits and stories on the print version.