Searching for a slogan

Some things never change. Take advertising slogans. You’d think that in today’s digital age they would be considered old hat. Even the word slogan sounds ancient. But looking at how many companies, big and small, use them today it is clear that they remain as powerful now as they were back in 1859. That was when Beechams coined what is believed to be the very first slogan – ‘Worth a guinea a box’ about their new indigestion tablets. The message being that they were worth far more than the few pennies they cost. Slogans are mainly about value and emotion. There is Lidl’s ‘Big on quality, Lidl on price’ and McDonald’s ‘I’m lovin it’ – both etched into our subconscious by constant repetition. Lockdown has given me the time to review our own slogan ’35 years of WOW’, coined to celebrate our 35 years in fireworks. It signifies longevity and excitement, factors which would hopefully persuade a client we are reliable, experienced and produce amazing displays. To seek inspiration I’ve been trawling through back episodes of the brilliant TV series Mad Men (based on the advertising world of Madison Avenue in New York) and what the legendary Don Draper would have come up with. In the final series, set in the early 70s, Don is credited with creating Coke’s new slogan ‘I’d like to buy the world a coke’. "I'd like to buy the world a fireworks' doesn't quite cut it. Instead it was in Katy Perry’s iconic song ‘Firework’, appropriately enough, that I found the words I was looking for. ‘Firework’ is a bit of pop poetry, in which Katy beseeches her man to ‘show ‘em what you’re worth’, to go ‘boom, boom, higher than the moon, moon, moon’. I’m lovin it! But there is another line that caught my eye – ‘Let your colours burst’. That was the standout message that I thought captures what we're all about. We’re all actors on Shakespeare’s stage waiting for that moment to ignite the light and let it shine. It couldn’t be a better expression of the power, the beauty and the optimism of fireworks. Right now we need optimism by the bucketful, so here is our new shout-out for the year ahead.