When marketing to potential insurance claimants, “we pay lots of claims” is a feature. “We won’t want to pay your claim”, while more accurate, is counterproductive as advertising.
Portnoy probably would,
Possibly apocryphal, but some admiral wanted to use “In the Navy” for a recruiting effort, until someone explained to him what the song was about.
USAA is even worse. They have a series of commercials touting the fact that they serve only members of the military and their families. Think about it. They’re not offering me good service, low prices, or anything else. The whole message of their ads is that I should be their customer for no better reason than that other people can’t.
Exclusivity is a huge marketing tool.
They’re just saying the quiet part out loud.
I thought the special sauce came later.
[I’ll let myself out]
My own place of business has a slogan “there is no routine cancer”.
This is not comforting. I get what they’re going after, but if I ever get cancer I WANT it to be routine, not complicated or rare.
I hate that slogan…
Back when I worked in a supermarket stocking shelves, we always got a kick out of a certain Pilsbury cake mix. It was a bundt cake with a creamy chocolate interior. They named it “Tunnel of Fudge”.
mmm
Edwin Newman had a pet peeve against the misuse of “destiny,” in that it’s defined as “inalterable fate.” Not the sloganeers’ something you can control if only you buy one and not the other grooming product.
Rover.
A dog sitting service. I think.
The song is supposed to be a dog sing/talking in dog speech about missing his people, or them missing him.
The speech is not clear. Kinda drunk talk.
Cartoon dog has an X for a butthole. Could a left that out.
Outback Steakhouse offers a dessert they call Chocolate Thunder From Down Under, which to me has always sounded like a euphemism for diarrhea.
The biggest hospital here has as their entire tagline:
Strong Medicine.
A friend, the head of a local ad agency, was going there, and said it made him worry that that’s where patients go if all other options had failed… “Where People Go to Die.”
There was a commercial some years ago where a husband and wife are enjoying Sabra hummus on their front porch while commenting that “it’s like our own little Mediterranean vacation!” Suddenly, there’s an ear-splitting crash and a shower of shattering glass behind them….
…and just as you’re thinking “they actually put that in an ad for an Israeli-branded product?!”, the couple turns around to see that their son has been hosting a wild teen party in their living room the whole time - and what we just saw was one of his friends throwing a bowling ball through the window. (“Dude, I thought your parents were in the Mediterranean!”)
USAA is relying on their previous reputation for being great insurance at a great price. What they are going after with this current campaign is to alert people who might not know they are eligible. Not just active service or veterans, but children or grandchildren of veterans even after reaching adulthood.
But maybe they should make a bigger deal about those things. “Hey, did you know you are eligible for this? And it’s USAA, so you know it’s great coverage.” That kind of thing. Instead, they’re relying on Gronkowski wanting it to convey that it’s special.
True, but this is the only example I can think of where it’s quite so blatant. It’s the only selling point in the whole campaign.
I don’t mind that one, particularly, although I listen to it more than watch.
I don’t much care for the Chewy commercials with the talking pets. It’s not the talking that bothers me, it’s just that they’re all such jerks. The dog in the Rover ad seems like one I might actually like, butthole notwithstanding.
Apropos of nothing, I’d like to thank Irishman, who started this thread, for an ongoing earworm every time I even see the title.
It’s Led Zeppelin singing:
“I been AMUSED and CONFUSED
for so long it’s not true…”
I figure that’s pretty much my slogan these days.
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).
There was also once a diet product called “Nestle Sweet Success”. “It’s the only diet plan that starts with Nestle and ends with Sweet Success”. Well, gee, if the best thing you can tell me about your diet plan is what its name is, that’s a ringing endorsement.
Seely Mattresses used to have a big thing about their “Sense And Respond” springs, where the harder you pushed on the springs, the harder they’d push back. Personally, I’d be a lot more impressed by springs that don’t obey Newton’s Third Law. Though to be fair to the marketers, I think that the part they were trying to convey was just that they obey Hooke’s Law, which is true of all springs, not Newton’s Third Law, which is true of all absolutely everything.
I sing that every time an ad for LoveSac pops up on my browser or social media. Despite the horrible name, the modular furniture concept intrigued me until I figured out the cost of just a decent sided sectional from there.
Similarly, and also probably apocryphal, Greyhound Bus Lines supposedly contacted Harry Chapin about using his song Greyhound for their commercials.
Even if you’ve never heard this particular song by Chapin, you can probably guess why he very politely advised them to actually listen to the song and then get back to him.
There’s a “male enhancement” urologist here, who advertises the effectiveness of his impotence treatment, promising “you’ll see results on your first visit, right here in our office!” Ewwww…