Welcome to today’s pop quiz and nostalgic trip down marketing’s memory lane, courtesy of sloganeer Eric Swartz at Tagline Guru, and Brad Phillips over at Ragan’s PR Daily. As Brad explains:
“Most of you will answer more than half of these, and some of you will complete all 20. Your ability to instantly recall so many of those advertising slogans is a testament to two things: message consistency and message repetition.”
See how well you can complete these ad slogans (answers are below):
1. Bounty. The quicker ________ ________.
2. Takes a licking ________ ________ ________ ________.
3. Pork. The other ________ ________.
4. Pardon me. Do you have any ________ ________.
5. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, ________ ________ ________ ________ ________ ________.
6. Let your fingers ________ ________ _________.
7. The mind is a terrible ________ ________ ________.
8. Friends don’t let ________ ________ ________.
9. I’ve fallen ________ ________ ________ ________ ________.
10. It takes a tough man ________ ________ ________ ________ ________.
11. Tastes great, ________ ________.
12. Don’t leave home ________ ________.
13. Where’s the ________?
14. You’re in good hands with ________.
15. Melts in your mouth, ________ ________ ________ ________.
16. Reach out and ________ ________.
17. Never let ‘em see ________ ________.
18. Maxwell House Coffee. Good ________ ________ ________ ________.
19. All the news ________ ________ ________ ________.
20. My bologna has a first name, ________ __ __ __ __ __.
_________________
Answers:
1. “picker-upper,” Bounty, 1991
2. “and keeps on ticking,” Timex, 1956
3. “white meat,” National Pork Board, 1986
4. “Grey Poupon,” Grey Poupon, 1980
5. “oh what a relief it is,” Alka-Seltzer, 1970s
6. “do the walking,” Yellow Pages, 1964
7. “thing to waste,” United Negro College Fund, 1972
8. “friends drive drunk,” U.S. Department of Transportation, 1992
9. “and I can’t get up,” LifeCall, 1990
10. “to make a tender chicken,” Perdue, 1972
11. “less filling,” Miller Lite, 1974
12. “without it,” American Express, 1975
13. “beef,” Wendy’s, 1984
14. “Allstate,” Allstate Insurance, 1956
15. “not in your hands,” M&M’s, 1954
16. “touch someone,” AT&T, 1979
17. “you sweat,” Gillette, 1980s
18. “to the last drop,” Maxwell House Coffee, 1926
19. “that’s fit to print,” New York Times, 1896
20. “it’s O-S-C-A-R,” Oscar Meyer, 1960s
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Eric Swartz is the master wordslinger at Tagline Guru. Brad Phillips is president of Phillips Media Relations, specializing in media and presentation training.
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The Ethical Nag 
Well, I got most of them thanks to my advanced age (grin). I love a game!
# 14 (guessed that it was a life insurance type company) but I don’t see the answer here.
Thanks for pointing out the typo, Cave! #14’s answer was inadvertently tucked up on line #13 – fixed now. Congrats on using your advanced age and wisdom to score well here.
Fun!
I have to give my “Takes a lickin'” Timex story: I put my watch in my jeans pocket and forgot it was there, washed the jeans, dried ’em, took out the jeans, found the watch, and tick, tick, tick! Kept on tickin’! You can imagine how sorry I was when a year or so later, I LOST it! My loyal, true, blue Timex watch! But pretty good testimonial, eh?
Now THAT is a great Timex story, Bev! You should have been doing commercials for the product.