Slogan | Product
or Company | First
use | Author or Agency | Source and notes |
A diamond is forever. | DeBeers | 1948 | N.W. Ayer & Son | Steve Cone, Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History (2008), p. 129. |
A little dab'll do ya! | Brylcreem |
|
| Susan Wilson, One Good Dog (2010), p. 296. |
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. | United Negro College Fund | 1970s | Young & Rubicam | George R. Bonner Jr., "Public-service advertising nears No. 1 ad pace in US", Christian Science Monitor (April 26, 1983), Business, p. 10. |
Always Coca-Cola. | Coca-Cola | 1993 |
| Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It (2000), p. 398. |
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. | Apples | 1900s |
| Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire (Random House, 2001), ISBN 0375501290, p. 22, cf. pp. 9 & 50. |
Be all that you can be. | United States Army | 1981-2001 | N. W. Ayer | Craig C. Pinder, Work Motivation: Theory, Issues, and Applications (1984), p. 50. |
Between love and madness lies Obsession. | Calvin Klein's Obsession | 1985 |
| Robert Jackall and Janice M. Hirota, Image Makers: Advertising, Public Relations, and the Ethos of Advocacy (2003), p. 212. |
Breakfast of Champions | Wheaties | 1935 | Blackett-Sample-Gummert | Later "The Breakfast of Champions" into the 1990s; cited by Kurt Vonnegut eponymously in Breakfast of Champions (1973), preface: "The use of the identical expression as the title for this book is not intended to indicate an association with or sponsorship by General Mills, nor is it intended to disparage their fine product." |
Cabinets fit for royalty, but affordable for all! | Kitchen Cabinet Kings | 2011 | Anthony Saladino | James R. Gregory, The Best of Advertising Slogans: Best Practices in Corporate Building (2011), p. 23. |
Connecting People. | Nokia | 1992 |
| Dan Steinbock, Winning Across Global Markets: How Nokia Creates Strategic Advantage in a Fast-Changing World (2010), p. 73. |
Did somebody say McDonald's? | McDonald's | 1997 |
| Gale Group, Major Marketing Campaigns Annual 2 (1999), p. 243. |
Do you...Yahoo!? | Yahoo! | 1996 |
| Kevin Lane Keller, Best Practice Cases in Branding: Lessons from the World's Strongest Brands (2008), p. 251. |
Eat Mor Chikin! | Chick-fil-A | 1995 |
| The Richards Group, Atlanta PRNewswire (1995). |
Every kiss begins with Kay | Kay Jewelers |
|
| Tom Altstiel, Jean Grow, Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics from the Outside/In (2006), p. 167. |
Give me a break,
give me a break;
break me off a piece of that
Kit Kat bar | Kit Kat | 1986 | Ken Shuldman (lyrics) and Michael A. Levine (music), DDB Worldwide | Joe Tracy, Web Marketing Applied (2000), p. 187. |
Good things happen when Home Depot comes to town. | The Home Depot | 1993 |
| Chris Roush, Inside Home Depot: How One Company Revolutionized an Industry Through the Relentless Pursuit of Growth. (1999), p. 130. |
Good to the last drop. | Maxwell House coffee | 1926 | Allegedly coined by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, although the claim is dubious; adopted as Maxwell House's tagline in 1926. | Isaac E. Lambert, The Public Accepts: Stories Behind Famous Trade-marks, Names and Slogans (1941), p. 35. |
Got Milk? | Cow's milk (for the California Milk Processor Board) | 1993 | Goodby Silverstein & Partners | Margo Berman, Robyn Blakeman, The Brains Behind Great Ad Campaigns (2009), p. 160. |
Have it your way. | Burger King | 1973 | BBDO | Al Ries, Jack Trout, Marketing Warfare (2005), p. 159. |
Have You Met Life Today? | Metropolitan Life | 2001 |
| Bonnie L. Drewniany, A. Jerome Jewler, Creative Strategy in Advertising (2007), p. 139. |
Home of the Whopper. | Burger King | 1957 |
| Al Ries, Jack Trout, Marketing Warfare (2005), p. 163. |
I want my MTV. | MTV |
|
| Mark Tungate, Media Monoliths: How Great Media Brands Thrive and Survive (2004), p. 41. |
I'd walk a mile for a Camel. | Camel cigarettes | 1921 |
| Henry Hobhouse, Seeds of Wealth: Five Plants That Made Men Rich (2006), p. 226. |
I'm lovin' it. | McDonald's | 2003 | Heye & Partner, an affiliate of DDB Worldwide | Tom Altstiel, Jean Grow, Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics from the Outside/In (2006), p. 293. |
Is it live, or is it Memorex? | Memorex video cassettes | 1970s |
| Richard D. Leppert, Susan McClary, Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance, and Reception (2001), p. 174. |
It pays to advertise! | Advertisements | 1920s | Dorothy L. Sayers for S.H. Benson's | Mitzi Brunsdale, Dorothy L. Sayers (1990), p. 94. |
It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. | Timex Corporation | 1956 |
| William Harley Davidson, José R. De la Torre, Managing the Global Corporation: Case Studies in Strategy and Management (1989), p. 21. |
It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. | Perdue | 1972 | Scali, McCabe & Sloves | Robert F. Hartley, Marketing Successes, Historical to Present Day: What We Can Learn (1985), p. 171. |
Ivory Soap - 9944/100% Pure. | Ivory Soap | 1882 | Unknown employee of Procter & Gamble | Julian Lewis Watkins, The 100 Greatest Advertisements: Who Wrote Them and What They Did (1959), p. 7. |
Just Do It. | Nike | 1988 | Wieden & Kennedy | Robert Goldman, Stephen Papson, Nike Culture: the Sign of the Swoosh (1998), p. 19; authorship attributed to Wieden & Kennedy in Communication Arts (1988), p. 151. |
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. | State Farm Insurance | 1971 | DDB Worldwide | Richard Jackson Harris, A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication (2004), p. 100. |
M'm! M'm! Good! | Campbell's Soup | 1931 |
| James R. Gregory, The Best of Branding: Best Practices in Corporate Building (2004), p. 84. |
Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline. | Maybelline | 1991 |
| Robin Andersen, Jonathan Gray, Battleground: The Media (2008), p. 7. |
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. | M&Ms | 1954 |
| Joël Glenn Brenner, The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars, (1999), p. 172. |
Nothing outlasts the Energizer. It keeps going and going and going. | Energizer batteries |
|
| Robert Goldman, Stephen Papson, Sign Wars: The Cluttered Landscape of Advertising (1996), p. 45. |
Obey your thirst. | Sprite |
|
| Robert Goldman, Stephen Papson, Sign Wars: The Cluttered Landscape of Advertising (1996), p. 263. |
Oh, what a feeling! | Toyota | 1979 |
| Donna Jean Umiker-Sebeok, Marketing and Semiotics: New Directions in the Study of Signs For Sale (1987), p. 524. |
Pork. The Other White Meat. | National Pork Board | 1987 | Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt | Philip H. Dougherty, "ADVERTISING; Dressing Pork for Success", The New York Times (January 15, 1987). |
Probably the best lager in the world. | Carlsberg | 1973 | Saatchi & Saatchi | Jack S. Blocker, David M. Fahey, Ian R. Tyrrell, Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia (2003), p. 140. |
Put a tiger in your tank. | Esso/Exxon |
|
| Brian Ash, Tiger in Your Tank: The Anatomy of an Advertising Campaign (1969), p. 60. |
So easy a caveman can do it. | GEICO |
|
| Laura Lowell, 42 Rules of Marketing (2007), p. 21. |
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. | Peter Paul Almond Joy & Peter Paul Mounds | 1953 | Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample | Linda K. Fuller, Frank Hoffmann, Beulah B Ramirez, Chocolate Fads, Folklore & Fantasies: 1,000+ Chunks of Chocolate Information (1994), p. 60. |
Taking Care of Business. | Office Depot |
|
| Arthur A. Winters, Peggy Fincher Winters, Carole Paul, Brandstand: Strategies for Retail Brand Building (2003), p. 148. |
The lion leaps from strength to strength. | Peugeot | 1980s |
| J. Jonathan Gabay, Gabay's Copywriters' Compendium: The Definitive Creative Writer's Guide (2006), p. 602. |
The pause that refreshes. | Coca-Cola | 1929 | D'Arcy Co. | Edward Collins Bursk, The world of business (1962), p. 335. |
The world's local bank. | HSBC |
|
| Philip Kotler, Waldemar Pfoertsch, Ines Michi, B2B Brand Management (2006), p. 102. |
There is no spit in Cremo! | Cremo cigars by American Tobacco | 1929 |
| Radio campaign on the new Columbia Broadcasting Service (CBS); cited in Erik Barnouw, The Sponsor: Notes On a Modern Potentate, Oxford University Press, 1978, page 25, ISBN 0-19-502614-4. |
We do it all for you. | McDonald's | 1975 |
| Robert Goldman, Reading Ads Socially (1992), p. 97 |
We drink all we can. The rest we sell. | Utica Club | 1965 | Doyle Dane Bernbach | Art Direction (1967), p. 133. |
We love to see you smile. | McDonald's | 2000 | DDB Chicago, an affiliate of DDB Worldwide | Howard Cannon, Brian Tarcy, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Restaurant (2001), p. 138. |
What would you do for a Klondike bar? | Isaly Dairy Company's Klondike bar | 1984 |
| Dwain Neilson Esmond, Can You Hear Me Now?: Young Adult Devotional (2004), p. 140. |
When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight. | Federal Express | 1982 | Ally & Gargano | Steve Cone, Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History (2008), p. 136. |
With a name like Smuckers... it has to be good. | Smuckers |
|
| Cynthia S. Smith, Step-by-step Advertising (1984), p. 74. |
You deserve a break today. | McDonald's | 1971 | Needham, Harper & Steers | Steve Cone, Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History (2008), p. 136. |
You're in good hands with Allstate. | Allstate |
|
| Sidney J. Levy, Dennis W. Rook, Brands, Consumers, Symbols, & Research: Sidney J. Levy on Marketing (1999), p. 15. |
You got peanut butter in my chocolate!
You got chocolate in my peanut butter!
(Voiceover) Two great tastes that taste great together. | Reese's Peanut Butter Cups | 1970 |
| Andrew Hargadon, How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth about how Companies Innovate (2003), p. 56; reported in part in Andrew F. Smith, Encyclopedia of Junk Food and Fast Food (2006), p. 228 (specifying date and attributing authorship to Ogilvy & Mather). |