Creative Ad Slogans Today

Following my previous blog on "Creative Ad Slogans of the 1960s", I've just spotted this refreshing one on a Metro shopping bag today:

"Why buy it next time when I want it now?"

It makes me smile to remember the same exact question my son had asked when he was a young boy and we were shopping at a department store.

This is a similar question most children would ask when told by their parents:

"No need to buy it now, lets buy it next time".

The parent's refusal to accede to the child's request is usually followed by an awkward scene in public of the child stamping his feet, sometimes yelling or screaming, refusing to budge from the spot, pleading the parent to buy what he thought he needed at that moment.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I couldn't remember what was my reaction in a similar scenario so many years ago, but an unpleasant scene in a public place is always avoided. There would usually be a compromise. Maybe an ice-cream or a cookie, with gentle persuasion and coaxing (mindful of not losing one's temper) solves it. To the kid, its a "real" need as he sees it.

So, modern day ad slogans have evolved and adapted to the changes of a new generation of young consumers. What sort of an appeal does it have?

All the same, the purpose of these ads is intended to entice, to tempt, to create a "real" or "imagined" need in the minds of the consumers and, the most important factor from a commercial perspective, to increase sales of their products through advertising.

There are ads which provide consumer awareness and education though.

Mahatma Gandhi said: "There is enough for everybody's needs, but never enough for everybody's greed".

The following quote is from Tan Kah Kee, featured in the video: Pioneers. The Life of Tan Kah Kee. Singapore Broadcasting Corporation, 1993:

"Money which has to be spent, even if it is tens of thousands has to be spent, but if there is no such need, even one cent should not be wasted."

[Acknowledgement of thanks to Miss Ivy Lee Huey Shin, Senior Librarian, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library and her colleagues at Reference Point at the National Library and ASK Service/Public Libraries for their kind assistance to trace the source of the quotation.]