Sometimes a few words stay in our memory longer than entire cars. The best advertising slogans did not just sell a model. They told a story about the brand, and many of them we still remember decades later. Let us recall some of the most famous.
Photo: Christian Jansky (User:Tschaensky) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
“Any colour, so long as it is black” – Ford
It was not exactly a slogan, but it may be the best-known phrase in car history. Henry Ford wrote it about the Model T: the customer could have it in any colour they wanted, so long as it was black. The reason was practical: black paint dried faster and the assembly line did not wait. The phrase became a symbol of mass production.
“Think Small” – Volkswagen
In 1959 the DDB agency had to sell a small, strange German Beetle to an America that loved huge cars. Instead of hiding the size, it made it an advantage: a tiny photo of the car on an empty page and the words “Think Small”. It is still considered one of the best adverts of all time.
The Rolls-Royce clock
In 1958 the legendary advertising man David Ogilvy wrote a headline for Rolls-Royce that became a lesson for generations of copywriters. It said that at 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock. With no exaggeration, just one simple, specific fact, it told you everything you needed to know about the car’s quality.
Photo: nakhon100 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
“Freude am Fahren” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine” – BMW
In Germany BMW promises “joy of driving”. In America, since 1975, “the ultimate driving machine”. Both slogans were built on cars like the small, fast 2002 and the first 3 Series, which made BMW synonymous with the sports saloon.
“Vorsprung durch Technik” – Audi
Since 1971 Audi has used the phrase “progress through technology”. In Britain it became so well known that even people who speak no German use it. The four-wheel-drive Audi quattro of 1980, which changed rallying, was the perfect proof that the slogan was not empty words.
Photo: Unknown photographer / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
And a few more
“Grace, Space, Pace” was Jaguar’s philosophy from the days of its founder, William Lyons. “You meet the nicest people on a Honda” changed the image of motorcycling in 1960s America. And Mercedes-Benz’s “Das Beste oder nichts”, the best or nothing, comes from a phrase attributed to Gottlieb Daimler.
The best slogans have something in common: they do not promise everything. They tell one truth about the car, simply and cleverly. Perhaps that is why we still remember them, long after the cars they advertised became classics.
P.Kefalas