“Be all you can be”

“What’s in your wallet?”

“Good to the last drop”

“Got Milk?”

I will bet you, that you could tell me every identity that those slogans belong to. Why?

What makes a good slogan/copy shot? Why do some copy shots become embedded in our brains, while others like “A Good Place to Sit and Eat.” (Denny’s), fall by the wayside?

Nick Padmore at A List Apart has crunched the numbers. He started with the 115 best slogans, straplines, taglines, and headlines (nominated by 18 creative experts), and examined every aspect of the slogans; mood, grammar, inclusion of the brand name, standards, metaphors and other devices.

Nick even went as far as to do separate calculations for post-1985 copy shots.

His conclusion was simple.

Judging against that criteria, he claims “If it’s on, it’s in” (Radio Times) is the Best Copy Shot Ever Written.

While I don’t agree with that AT ALL, his article is very informative (if a bit lengthy). It even has pie charts!

Seeing the numbers, it becomes very clear that most successful slogans have many elements in common. This is a very good thing to keep in mind when you are coming up with your next advertising campaign.

And just in case you didn’t know, the entities from the aboves slogans are (in order): ARMY, Capital One, Maxwell House, and National Milk Processor Board.