Graphic designer Clif Dicken's 'Honest Slogans' series involves pairing popular brands with slogans that convey what people really think about the brand, rather than what the companies want people to think. The series pokes fun at brands, while scratching beneath the surface to get at what these brands truly represent to most people.
A wide array of brands are targeted, including furniture stores, food product, deodorant and streaming services. The slogan for Yellow Pages is 'Here, you throw this away,' which alludes to the notion that the venerable phonebook is pretty much obsolete in the modern age and few people actually use it anymore. Beer brand Coors Light's can temperature-indicating campaign is criticized with the slogan 'The mountains turn blue in case you don't know what a cold beer feels like.'
Sports drink brand Gatorade was given a direct, to-the-point slogan that reads 'You have a hangover.' This one surely made the ad execs at Gatorade cringe, but is an example of how the Honest Slogans series scoffs at what brands would like us to think about products and gets to the heart of what the products mean to common folk.
Satirically Honest Brand Slogans
'Honest Slogans' Pairs Brands with Embarrassing Remarks
Trend Themes
1. Honest Brand Messaging - Opportunity for brands to embrace honesty in their messaging and address the real perceptions and feelings of consumers.
2. Satirical Marketing - Growing trend of using satire and humor in marketing campaigns to engage consumers and highlight the gap between brand image and consumer perception.
3. Consumer-centric Communication - Shift towards more authentic and relatable brand communication that resonates with consumers and acknowledges their true thoughts and feelings.
Industry Implications
1. Advertising - Disruptive innovation opportunity for advertising agencies to create campaigns that embrace honesty and authenticity, grabbing consumers' attention in a cluttered advertising landscape.
2. Marketing - Opportunity for marketers to utilize satire and humor in their campaigns to differentiate their brand, connect with target audiences, and create memorable experiences.
3. Brand Strategy - Challenges and opportunities for brand strategists to align brand messaging with consumers' true perceptions, building a more genuine and trustworthy relationship with customers.