I’m looking for advertising slogans that were changed for legal reasons. For example:
20+ years ago, McDonalds had a slogan, “We do it all for you”. One day, a customer asked that his food be delivered to his family sitting in the corner. When the store manager refused, the customer took McDonalds to court and forced them to drop the slogan.
Barnes and Noble used to have a slogan, “If you paid full price, you didn’t get it at Barnes and Noble.” About 10(?) years ago, they had to drop that slogan. Apparently, they decided to charge full, list price on most of their books.
“Wal-Mart - Always the lowest price, always” - Well someone (the FTC?) took them to court because they didn’t always have the lowest price. Wal-Mart claimed it was just a slogan. The FTC argued, successfully, that it was false advertising. It’s now “Always low prices”
Just last year, or maybe the year before, some McDonalds ads (perhaps only online banner ads), in an attempt to be hip, depicted guys looking at a tasty-like McDonalds food product and saying, “I’d hit it!” Apparently the ad execs who came up with that did not realize that bit of slang actually means “I’d like to have sex with that.” Everybody pointed and laughed at them, and they quickly withdrew the ads.
Man, you never would believe where those Keebler Cookies come from
they’re made by little elves in a hollow tree
and what do you think makes these cookies so uncommon?
they’re baked in a magic oven, and there’s no factory.
It was the National Advertising Review Board that found the Wal-Mart slogan misleading. It was a trade industry panel and so had no force in law, but Wal-Mart made the change to avoid the bad publicity.
I can’t find any evidence that either of the other two claims are true. They’re real slogans but McDonald’s has had dozens of slogans and changes them all the time. In fact “We do it all for you” was one of several slogans they used at the same time. The Barnes & Noble slogan is equally old, starting in 1974, when the store was something very different from what it became. They dropped the slogan as the chain grew to a full-service bookstore.
Most advertising slogans are protected as puffery, a legal term that also allows a local diner to claim it has “the world’s best burgers” without have to prove it. Getting a court to find a slogan to be false advertising would be difficult. The Barnes & Noble slogan might have a factual and disprovable claim in it, but I can’t imagine that McDonald’s would be found guilty of anything.
So you’re zero for three. There must be some examples somewhere, but I’d bet there aren’t very many.
Well, there are FTC rules that prevent you from calling anything “the best” unless you can back it up. That’s why you’ll often hear the “nothing is better,” which implies “the best,” even though legally it means, “they’re all the same.” But these are for claims, not a slogan. (Hellmann’s Mayonnaise can use “Bring out the Hellmann’s and bring out the Best” because it is the same as Best Food’s Mayonnaise, so you are literally bringing out the Best (Foods)).
I recalled that the Church of England was obliged to recall some advertising and received a fine because they couldn’t back up their claim of an afterlife, but I can’t find a source easily. Did that actually happen or was it a furphy?
OK, from ten years ago, as recounted in this thread:
A hard cider company called “Magner’s” was posting ads in the subway:
I did a search and found that the original name was apparently “Bulmer’s”. But I never did find a reason why they “had to” change their brand name. I’m unaware of any existing Bulmer’s product in the US that would make it inappropriate for them to bring it over as Bulmers Cider.
I recall one from long ago for hairspray: “It can hold your hair better than any aerosol can!” I guess plastic pump sprays would have been the better one to buy then.
I think you are wrong about this and would request a cite. Like others have said, claims about being the “best” or the “tastiest” are considered puffery and legit from what I have seen…
I would think so as well. Could you imagine even if McDonalds would deliver? Then you could request that they hire prostitutes to deliver Big Macs from gold-laced vaginas. When they refuse that, then you could sue…“You didn’t do it ‘all’ for me!” you could claim. I think that is covered under puffery as well…
Years ago (in the 60’s) I was living in Downer’s Grove, Illinois. They had a supermarket there, part of the “National” chain. Don’t know if they’re still in business or not.
Anyway, they had, for a very short time. a slogan on a sign in their meat department that said, in big letters,
The Bulmer’s name was owned by a UK drinks company in that particular market so (the Irish) Bulmer’s was changed to Magner’s when sold in the UK. The UK company may well have had the right to use that name in the US as well.
A lot longer ago than that… they first showed up in 2005 and were still being used as late as 2007. Personally, I half suspect that they were aware of the sexual meaning.
In 1966, President Johnson visited Australia. Sydney decked itself out in all its finery. There were banner ads everywhere saying "Sydney’s Gay for LBJ"and “Make Sydney Gay for LBJ”.
The present common meaning of the word “gay” had not arrived here yet, obviously. Nor had the whole Mardi Gras culture of Sydney.
I can just imagine Johnson seeing the signs, putting his head in his hands and going “Oh shit…”
Slightly off-topic; there’s a ton of old-school restaurants around these parts that claim to be “famous” or “world famous”, or else use the superlatives for menu items; for example, “World Famous Meatloaf”. (Surprisingly, Anchor Bar and Duff’s are not among them.) Are there rules for backing up claims of being “famous”, “world famous” and the like?
