The Emmaus Slogan

So I looked them up on their web site and discovered that Emmaus is a nationwide charity providing accommodation for the homeless but also provides them with training and advice designed to get them back on their feet and back into the community.

The work they do is obviously vital but one of the abiding memories I have of the web site is their Slogan which in my view is one of the best I have seen.

“Emmaus, giving homeless people a bed and a reason to get out of it!

It says it all doesn’t it and it got me thinking about slogans.

Charles Whittier in his book Creative Advertising says a slogan is “a statement of such merit about a product or service that it is worthy of continuous repetition in advertising, is worthwhile for the public to remember, and is phrased in such a way that the public is likely to remember it. It’s what the public takes away with them after an interaction.”

I don’t know about you but when I am out and about I always like to seek out the good slogans whether they are on hoardings, shop windows or even labels on bottles. Remember these classics?

Nothing sucks like an Electrolux;

Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet;

Have a break – have a Kit Kat;

Probably the best lager in the world

and one of my favourites from many years ago, Tony Hancock telling us to Go to work on an Egg.

But who can forget the daddy of them all, voted best UK advert ever. I’ll start you off and you can fill in the last three words.

“A million housewives every day pick up a tin of beans and say, ----- ----- -----.

It’s interesting that the slogan was only dropped after thirty years when Heinz wanted to ensure its brand was synonymous with more than just baked beans.

Surprisingly Coke Cola took themselves to first place in the marketplace with their extremely simple “it’s the real thing”. It seems everything afterwards wasn’t the real thing.

If people attach a simple slogan to a product then that branding sticks. See if you can attach a product name to “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, - oh what a relief it is”?

Government Departments have always produced slogans on more serious subjects.

What about this pithy slogan from HM Inspector of Taxes. “Self assessment tax doesn’t have to be taxing”.

Or one from the Food Standards Agency, “Give your Turkey a proper roasting”

Of course Charities have used shock slogans to bring the message home.

The British Heart Foundation had success with an anti-smoking ad, “we’ll help you give up before you clog up” over a picture of a clogged artery.

The RSPCA hit home in the 80s with, “when the Government killed the dog licence they left us to kill the dogs”.

But it’s the everyday ones you see in all sorts of places that give me a good laugh.

On a Plumber’s Shop window, “Don’t sleep with a drip. Call us”.

At a Tyre Shop, “invite us to your next blow-out”.

On a plastic surgeon’s office door, “Hello, may we pick your nose?”.

And on the window of a Funeral Parlour, “Please drive carefully, we’ll wait.”

Back in the 80's I belonged to a sad bunch of people called "Compers" who spent their lives thinking up slogans to win cometitions.

A rutheless bunch of individuals many of whom thought nothing of plagiarism to win a good prize.

This short and witty slogan is the most famous in the Compers world and has won many cars, holidays and other exotic prizes.

"Experts perfect it, connoisseurs select it".

I think you will agree it could apply to anything.

Anyway, whether they are funny or serious I take my hat off to the ingenuity of all the original creators.