Executive Briefing
Bring back slogans!
Brand marketing has changed profoundly in the internet era. But I miss a good tagline.
By Dan Frommer on Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 8:00 am
One of the many huge changes in marketing during the internet era has been the writing.
Spend some time flipping through old issues of National Geographic or The New Yorker, or an old newspaper, and the copy in the ads is just different: More formal, structured prose — entire paragraphs! sometimes many! — and peculiar vocabulary, with a snappy rhythm. Almost as if the words were placed there to be read and considered, instead of just looked at.
Maybe let’s leave those multi-column explainer essays about LuxuryLiners™ and Workstations in the past. Or at least save them for the product webpage.
But I also recently realized something else has quietly gone missing over the decades: The slogan. Those few pithy words that sum things up, give shape to the narrative, or just stick with you.
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Hi, I’m Dan Frommer and this is The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.
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