Several years ago, a few nutcases in Texas decided that Texas had never really joined the United States, that Texas was really still a sovereign nation all this time, that their fellow Texans had been duped into believing that Texas was part of the U.S. when in fact it was a country in its own right that owed allegiance to no one, and that by golly, they were going to set things right! They called themselves “The Republic of Texas”, conflating the fact that the State of Texas still sometimes refers to itself as a “Republic” with their own hair-brained theories of national independence. And, since no “real” civil authority existed in this hypothetically independent Texas nation that existed in their heads, they would conveniently step in and be the leaders of the sovereign and independent Republic of Texas until the next “real” election for the “nation’s” rulers.
The whole brouhaha ended with a shootout with Federal authorities.
Unfortunately, right at about that same time, the Texas tourism board had launched an advertising campaign with the slogan of:
Comedian Dana Gould remarked about how ad slogans like “soup is good food” were just a bunch of ad guys who were tired and want to go home. He added a few of his own.
Tool companies pick odd names. First up is Ridgid. It’s misspelled, but the image is obvious: Rigid tools. Hey, y’all, we sell rigid hand tools!
:: Let it sink in. ::
Next is one that should never have seen the light of day, especially when applied to the tool industry. Onan makes engines, but that’s not the half of it. That’s not even the good part.
Because who owns the Onan name?
Cummins. Cummins, whose slogan, from looking at their site, is `Unleash the Power of Cummins’ (in Your Pants).
Onan, owned by Cummins. Onan was Cummins in the wrong place, that’s for sure. It’s karmic, I tell you.
Are these people joking, or have I discovered the biggest Freudian slip since the Saturn V rocket?
I was at Wally-World a couple of weeks ago and saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said, “RNA: The other nucleic acid.”
My mom claims that Iowa’s Department of Tourism slogan was supposed to be “Iowa: We Make You Laugh” (IIRC, now it’s been reduced to a sarcastic smirk: “Iowa: We Make You Smile” is on the signs at the MN/IA border on I-35 just between Mason City and Albert Lea).
And finally, the ad slogan I believe to be one of the worst ever, the 7-Up “Make 7-Up Yours” campaign… bleah.
A few months ago, the New York Knicks held a ceremony to retire Patrick Ewings jersey. I forget which cable network was airing this (I think TNT), but before the ceremony started, the announcer said that the Patrick Ewing ceremony was sponsored by Hummer and Siemens!!!
What made this even more funny was that a few years ago, Patrick Ewing (as well as other NBA players) got in trouble for receiving ORAL SEX in a strip club!!!
We’re working on an ad campaign for a company that’s sponsoring one of the soccer tournaments in the region. As a joke, one of the ideas we wrote down was:
If you want to hold the Cup, you need great supporters.
We were smart enough not to actually present it to the client, as there’s more than a good chance theyd take it seriously.
Another company name I saw last night as I was going home was a motorcycle courier service that wanted to emphasize how fast they were. They combined “rapid” with “speed” and got
Rapeed
I knew what they meant, but god, it just looks so wrong.
When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what’s inside, since many people can’tread.
In a Winair tourist brochure, they show a photo of Plymouth town, Montserrat, which has been buried by a pyroclastic flow, involving around 23 deaths. All that can now be seen of the buried town is a few rooftops.
Below that, there’s an as for a contrustion company that says “At Henderson’s, we’re more than just roofing!”
I saw on TV today an ad for those oddly squishy mattresses. It said “The only mattress recognized by NASA!” Riiight. As if NASA employees, upon seeing an ordinary mattress, say “What the heck is this strange thing?”