advertising and other stuff. no, really.



Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Does the USA need a tagline?

(Fun with taglines, part 1. Aka, this is me trying to come up with a multi-part series and actually finishing one.)

So the age of Hope is here, with optimistic sodas taking over everything. With a new generation comes new dreams, a new spirit, right? Obama wants to repair the image of America abroad, and well, why not break the mold and go with a tagline to help win hearts and minds. We’d do the same thing with a new ad campaign, which is essentially what this is, no? Besides, if states can have them, why can’t the country as a whole?

“Come for the freedom—stay for the fast food.”

“Keeping Canada safe for over two centuries.”

“We’ll grow on you.”

Of course, New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die would be perfect if it weren’t already taken, so barring that, I’ll just throw it out to the crowdsourcing masses. If America had a tagline, what would it be?

25 comments:

Andy Jukes said...

"Mission Accomplished."

RFB said...

"Sooner or later, you'll need..."

"Not quite Rome, but getting there"

"The Empire You Trust"

Patrick Sandlin Portfolio said...

That looks nice. It's ours now.

All your oil belongs to us.

I can't believe it's not democracy.

alexmpayne said...

You don't like us. We don't care.

Now with Obama!

Anonymous said...

USA
Home of the Bailouts

USA
The new credocracy

USA
With an IOU on the world

USA
Phat.

Anonymous said...

I meant:

USA
We're phat and that's that.

Anonymous said...

A good start people, touching upon imperialistic themes, good to see. Little surprised we don’t have any with a militaristic POV yet. Something like:

“12-1—and we’re still pissed about that one.”

“Defending World Champs.”

M.M. McDermott said...

"You're welcome, world."

"The check's in the mail."

"Your neighbor to the northsoutheastandwest."

"Feel the democracy all up in you."

"50 little heavens on earth*"





*Some restrictions apply. Statement not applicable in New Jersey. Call for details.

HighJive said...

Um, don’t we already have taglines? E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, God Bless America, to name a few. Got mission statements too – The Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Pledge of Allegiance, etc. Also have a theme song that gets sung before every sporting event.

Are you guys recent immigrants?

M.M. McDermott said...

Yeah, HJ. But we need stuff that actually applies ;)

The nation's put the account into review.

Anonymous said...

@hj - That’s not really the same thing though, and it’s only on currency. Plus, there’s just too many of those as you noted. While it might be a tag, in this case I think ‘In God We Trust’ has about the same weight as ‘Made in America.’ Less a tagline and more a selling feature.

HighJive said...

Guess you'll want to redesign that outdated flag next, huh?

Those original taglines work fine. Why do you art directors always think we need to change the copy?

Anonymous said...

Who needs copy?

;-p

Anonymous said...

Creeping conservatism there from High Jive...

HighJive said...

anything we come up with will get killed in focus groups anyway.

RFB said...

You'd better credit Bill Murray for the 12 and 1 there, Bill.

Typical AD - trying to slide in a stolen copy concept.

Andrew said...

Fun stuff. I work in higher ed marketing, and higher ed is not known for coming up with great taglines. (Instead of focus groups, we have faculty committees and administrative review boards. So all our taglines end up with words like "excellence" in them.) But here are a few for consideration:

Got democracy?

E Stimulus Unum

It tastes like democracy, but it's not

Anonymous said...

@Andrew - Nice last seconed entry with “Got?”

@Jetpacks - Imitation equaling flattery and all, I took his 10-1 and factored in the Gulf Wars.

(As for Mr. Murray, like Elvis at most ballparks, is always welcome here. A ticket waits at the will call.)

Anonymous said...

There when you need us... there when you don't.

xtine said...

"Now Under New Management."

Anonymous said...

USA

Not your grandfather's country.

Anonymous said...

Andrew, I disagree with you about academic taglines.
Look at
VERITAS
and then the counter from the competition
LUX ET VERITAS
these are as good as they get

Anonymous said...

an agency i worked for even came up with a nice one
HARVARD.
THE ADELPHI OF MASSACHUSETTS

Anonymous said...

M.M. McDermott's "50 little heavens on earth* *Some restrictions apply. Statement not applicable in New Jersey. Call for details." is brilliant!

Although, the same could be said for WV, and several others.

M.M. McDermott said...

Anon: Thanks. The beauty of it is we could really add any state to that disclaimer and it would make perfect sense to someone.

God knows MD fits the bill, too.