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Brands are always working hard to come up with strategies to keep their products relevant, trending, and talked about. Some of these strategies are wins — like Coca-Cola’s “share a coke” campaign… and some are major fails — like PepsiCo’s “Live for Now” campaign (the disastrous Kendall Jenner commercial). Brand taglines are the catchy slogans that become synonymous with the company. When you hear “Just Do it;” “I’m Lovin’ It;” “What’s in your wallet?” and your brain will automatically think: Nike; McDonald’s; Capital One. While the most iconic advertising slogans are so great they’ve won awards, there are just as many terrible counterparts. Here are the worst brand taglines — ranked for your entertainment.
1. “Cheat On Your Girlfriend, Not On Your Workout”
Reebok’s ill-fated 2012 campaign was eventually pulled. While this tagline is obviously offensive and misogynistic — Reebok gets some points for attempting to be funny but loses more for their terrible messaging.
2. “If it doesn’t get all over the place, it doesn’t belong in your face.”
Carl’s Jr. was an early pioneer of the questionable practice of combining sexy imagery with fast food advertising. This suggestive and slightly off advertising slogan from 1996 is no exception.
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3. “It’s not for Women”
What was Dr. Pepper’s thinking with this 2011 campaign? Were they hoping to alienate half of all consumers, attempting to capitalize on reverse psychology, or did they just think men needed even their soft drinks to be hyper-masculine? This tagline definitely earned its spot in the top three most terrible.
4. “Drive One”
Ford’s ill-fated 2008 campaign was so boring you probably forgot about it completely. If the Ford team was going for simplicity, they overshot it by a lot!
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5. “Imagine more snacks than you can imagine.”
The BP am/pm slogan is repetitive and reads like a stoned teenager’s description of the aisles of BP am/pm, which kind of works. We’ll give points to the marketing department at BP for this company slogan because it’s obvious they are familiar with their audience excluding the repetitive word.
6. A Body for Every Body
This 2014 Victoria’s Secret tagline was actually created after their first option “The Perfect Body” was met with uproar from consumers. Their second attempt “A Body for Every Body” was rushed, confusing (doesn’t everybody already have a body?!), and didn’t do much to soothe the controversy as they didn’t change any of the models — just the tagline.
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7. “Exclusively for Everybody”
Another weird “everybody”-themed tagline from 2014 is Smirnoff’s oxymoronic attempt at inclusivity. While we appreciate the sentiment, Smirnoff loses points for not making sense and trying too hard to be relatable.
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8. “Go Cottonelle, Go Commando!”
Toilet paper ads can get pretty weird, and this 2015 Contenelle campaign was no exception. The concept behind the company slogan gets a little more intimate than the average consumer would like to get with their TP brand. Points because the advertising campaign did actually boost sales!
Featured Image Credit: McDonald’s
