Many brands have straplines that make no sense. This is not a new observation.
The habit of turning nouns into adjectives and vice versa is long-established – it was covered on this blog in 2012.
But things have come to a head with the new Stella Artois brand line– ‘Be legacy’. It feels like something has to give.
Fortunately, there is a quick fix. The most high-profile cases (listed above) can be put right with some straightforward cutting-and-pasting.
The efficiency of this approach is that it is not necessary to write any new lines or use any extra words. Just swap the words between the brands and everyone gets a better outcome.
So Trainline gets a line that makes sense.
Similarly, this line makes me more interested in Expedia.
Sky cuts to the chase in a way that I suspect would appeal to its owner.
Rightmove continues to overclaim, but at least this is a sensible and cheerful instruction for people moving house.
BUPA emphasises the positive outcome and puts the focus on the customer.
This is still a cliched sentiment, but putting it in weird English doesn’t stop it being a cliched sentiment, however much you’d like it to. (This is part of the thinking with a lot of these straplines – it’s about making a boring thought sound new.)
I like this. It sets an appropriately charming tone for the brand. No need to go into the details of what the toilet roll brand does – just enjoy it.
Admittedly, this one is still bollocks. But it kind of makes sense – the legacy being something integral to the product itself. Sort of.
This sounds slightly menacing, but you could make a nice anthemic jingle out of it.
And finally Lenovo gets nothing. I don’t know what Lenovo stands for, and I doubt they do either. So maybe just embrace that. No brand really owns that nihilistic territory.
As I say, all of this only involves swapping existing words between the brands in question, so it is easy to implement. Signage and other collateral can be sliced up and rearranged without any extra print costs.
Will tidy away the cutting mat now and have a Stella.
