# Advertising and slogans that leave you Amused or Confused **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** commercials-ads\ **Created:** [March 18, 2024, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976 "2024-03-18T08:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/41 "2024-03-18T22:20:07Z")
I mentioned this in another thread recently… There’s a TV ad where a couple is going through one of their recently deceased parent’s house, searching for some important insurance paperwork. It happened to come on one night while I was in the kitchen, so all I heard was the audio: “It’s hard when you lose a loved one.” “HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE FILING CABINET?” That had me giggling for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/42 "2024-03-18T22:29:49Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Not a slogan, but I remain amused and confused that geckos and emus and weirdos like “The Mayhem Guy” and “Flo” are actually used to sell insurance. Rather than putting forth a conservative image and saying something like “we pay lots of claims.” GEICO was so successful with their gecko character that everyone else felt they had to compete. > **[The Gecko Effect : Planet Money](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1102496094)** > > Years ago advertising was dominated by cars and beer. Today on the show, how a simple slogan and a talking gecko helped the insurance industry become one of the most dominant forces in advertising. Now, we're all living with the consequences. | Fill... ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/43 "2024-03-18T22:37:36Z")
“Tunnel of Fudge Cake” was a 1960’s suburban housewife staple. It was one of those convenience-food-meets-just-a-little-bit-of-work-in-the-kitchen-designed-to-make-the-cook-feel-good concoctions. My mother used to make it all the time. I don’t recall the details, but it was made with some sort of Pillsbury product that I know has been discontinued. [You can see an updated version from Pillsbury](https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/tunnel-of-fudge-cake/8d3b4927-2f71-41a3-9dab-7750f045f252) but if you read the comments, it’s not like the real thing the commentators nostalgically recall from decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/44 "2024-03-18T22:47:07Z")
Sorry for the double post; I also have a slogan to contribute. I was living in Indonesia when the national airline, Garuda, celebrated its 50th anniversary. I don’t remember the wording of the original celebratory slogan in Indonesian. But as I recall, the English translation they used was “50 Years of Trying.” Um … that’s not very encouraging. I’ll take 50 years of success, not just trying, please. Just now I Googled for evidence to corroborate my memory; the translation I found was “50 years of challenge.” That’s maybe a _little_ better, but not much. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/45 "2024-03-19T03:45:57Z")
50 Years of Trying… and we still can’t get off the ground. … but you’re better off taking a train (in an archipelago). … and some days we get you to your destination. Wow, they just write themselves. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/46 "2024-03-19T04:07:25Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Then there’s the classic for the invasion of Iraq. Don’t forget Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), which allegedly was named “Operation Iraqi Liberation” until someone pointed out that OIL was a bit too on-the-nose as an initialism. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/47 "2024-03-19T04:21:16Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Well, the song also contains the line “You make a dead man come”. I don’t know if this was good advertisement for Win95, but I don’t think MS used it either. Similarly, I have a feeling when they named their new browser “Edge” they did not have anyone like me in the room who would have asked them if they knew what “edging” was. It’s the browser that will get you so close to satisfaction but won’t take you all the way! I suppose there is a small but dedicated audience for this and since they are used to disappointment they probably love Microsoft already. There is a pharmacy one town over from me that is called Whole Health. Must be fun answering the phone there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/48 "2024-03-19T04:45:59Z")
That special sauce is important-those patties are _dry_. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/49 "2024-03-19T05:03:58Z")
Disney used [a song about crystal meth addiction](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-Charmed_Life) (albeit just the “doot-doot-doot” part) in the trailer for _The Tigger Movie_. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/50 "2024-03-19T06:30:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Philadelphia Cream Cheese, for a long time, used “New York, New York” as their theme song. Granted, just the first line (“Start spreading the news”), but it’s still a song from a completely different city from their branding (and also a different city from where it’s actually made). I kind of see that, since NY is the town for bagels and Philadelphia Cream Cheese is the shmear for bagels. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/51 "2024-03-19T08:23:29Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > The one that spawned this thread is a new furniture brand for a couch called “LoveSac”. Erm, that sounds more like a euphamism for scrotum. You think they don’t _know_ that? ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/52 "2024-03-19T08:40:16Z")
Wang computers ran the slogan “Wang Cares” for a while. The Americans didn’t understand why the Brits and Aussies were sniggering so much. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/53 "2024-03-19T09:21:28Z")
Well, at least it wasn’t “50 years of striving”. In Arabic not Indonesian… ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/54 "2024-03-19T11:38:30Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > Not a slogan, but I remain amused and confused that geckos and emus and weirdos like Hey, before liberty mutual ran the emu ads, they had a campaign, “liberty mutual, insurance inaction”. Oh, maybe they’re was a space splitting up that last word. You couldn’t hear it in the radio tags, though. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/55 "2024-03-19T13:53:40Z")
In the 90s, I saw a billboard that said “Michelob…or beer?” I know which one I’d choose. Dan ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/56 "2024-03-19T14:14:35Z")
There’s a pizza chain called Fox’s Pizza. They really play up the “Fox” part, calling their restaurants “Fox’s Pizza Den”. The one near me actually has a dead fox stuffed and mounted on display by the cash register. Anyway, their one slogan really grates on me. [![](https://i.imgur.com/G6ZjyjH.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/G6ZjyjH.jpg) It should be “From Our Den To Yours”. Right? Sounds so much better, looks better, simpler. My gf (who is in advertising) tells me to shut up and eat my pizza when I try talking with her about this. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/57 "2024-03-19T16:30:23Z")
As long as we’re talking about pizza … in Egypt, there were constant rip-offs/counterfeits of well known brands. You had to proceed with caution when buying anything; just because an item had a familiar brand name on it didn’t mean it was the real thing. However, there were often clues - the imitations might be sloppy enough that you could easily tell they were fake. Another issue was that Arabic doesn’t usually include vowels in writing. This led to an unusually high degree of errors when writing counterfeit English brand names, because the vowels were never seen as all that important. So there was a pizza parlor near our apartment called “Pizza Hat,” which included signage complete with the real Pizza Hut logo (which I’ve always thought is supposed to be a red roof, but [it certainly looks like a hat)](https://www.google.com/search?as_st=y&tbm=isch&hl=en&as_q=Pizza+Hut+logo&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgar=&imgcolor=&imgtype=&cr=&as_sitesearch=&as_filetype=&tbs=#imgrc=NovQKTYXYqGzFM). We never knew if they spelled it “Hat” on purpose because they thought the logo was a hat, or whether it was just an example of careless vowel usage and they didn’t notice that their spelling wasn’t the same as the _real_ Pizza Hut. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/58 "2024-03-19T16:39:08Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > Wang computers ran the slogan “Wang Cares” for a while. The Americans didn’t understand why the Brits and Aussies were sniggering so much. This is a running in-joke in the Grand Theft Auto games with the ones I can remember being Juank Air and [Wang Cars](https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Wang_Cars_(GTA_San_Andreas)). Speaking of which, Buick decided to call the LaCrosse the Allure in Canada because in Canadian French, _faire la crosse_ is slang for masturbation. ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/59 "2024-03-19T17:17:37Z")
> [@solost](#): > > UPS ran with the slogan “What can brown do for you?” for what seemed like a surprisingly long time. UPS, so I’ve heard, used the slogan “A blur of brown efficiency” (which of course also describes diarrhea). I can’t find any trace of this online, but it was for a calendar or something. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976/60 "2024-03-19T18:00:18Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > So there was a pizza parlor near our apartment called “Pizza Hat,” which included signage complete with the real Pizza Hut logo (which I’ve always thought is supposed to be a red roof, but [it certainly looks like a hat)](https://www.google.com/search?as_st=y&tbm=isch&hl=en&as_q=Pizza+Hut+logo&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgar=&imgcolor=&imgtype=&cr=&as_sitesearch=&as_filetype=&tbs=#imgrc=NovQKTYXYqGzFM). Their architecture was very distinctive. I don’t know if it’s still around, but I remember a blog that chronicled UTBAPH buildings. It stood for “Used To Be A Pizza Hut”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advertising-and-slogans-that-leave-you-amused-or-confused/998976.md?page=4)