Slogans trigger resistance, Logos don't

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3336

by marksu • 15 years ago

25 3 15 years ago

languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu

intellection• 15 years ago

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I love you.

skalpelis• 15 years ago

That reminds me how Ogilvy wrote in Confessions of an ad man - how his copywriting style was more successful (sales-wise) than others even though his copy was lengthier and more descriptive than others'.

cjlars• 15 years ago

A slightly different interpretation is that slogans that aren't fully true trigger cognitive dissonance, which in turn triggers distrust.

For example: "Save Money. Live Better." It isn't obviously true that living better follows saving money -- perhaps the money is better spent for a premium product. Yet the logo, essentially big text that says "Walmart," is very obviously true: It's a big store called Walmart.

Logos generally don't make a statement and there's nothing to disagree with. So when you're shown a logo, you're free to draw on your own interpretation of the brand, but when your shown a slogan, you often experience this dissonance, which manifests as distrust.* Similarly, even the word "slogan" is enough to trigger this distrust, since you've been lied to so frequently in the past. I'd be curious how the effect differs from a true slogan, like "we are farmers," vs an untrue one like "the ultimate driving machine."

*Note that the above is essentially "The Law of Candor," from the classic book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Reis and Jack Trout.

Slogans trigger resistance, Logos don't

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