Today, my kids wanted to know what flavours of ice cream were at home. So I opened the fridge and realised that we were out of ‘Magnums’, their all-time favourite, though we did have some plain vanilla ice cream left in the freezer.
My elder one screamed from her room, “Could you put some chocolate-chips on my vanilla ice cream?”
My younger one came up with another request, “Could you please add some crushed Oreos to my ice cream?”
I said, “Okay.”
I just scooped the vanilla ice cream to fulfil their demands when my daughter entered the kitchen and pointed at something written on the ice-cream box and smiled.
The package said, “Shameless Vanilla – Add something to me”.
“How apt!” I mused and chuckled as I admired the brilliance of the creative mind.
I’m not advertising for any ice-cream brand, but I’m genuinely applauding the ingenuity of the person behind ideas for catchphrases and taglines on the packaging of products.
How many of us actually look and read the information on the packaging of the various products we buy? If I’m not wrong, not many of us try to go into any detail provided on the packing cover. Unless, of course, if it is something to eat, the most we do is go through the manufacturing and the expiry dates. Otherwise, we know our brands well, we are loyal to them, and we pick our usual and move out of the store.
Who has the time to look at the tag lines or captions stated on the packaging?
A lot of thinking goes into making those fantastic words, and companies pay a handsome amount for making them attractive and catchy. They need to keep the product in their customers’ minds at all times, and having a catchy tagline helps a lot.
Brand taglines are important, and some of them are brutally honest. There was one that caught my eye; it was on one of the property buying board games – It said, “A great way to ruin friendships.” We have all seen how friendly banters turned into heated arguments over a board game. We can’t deny that.
You would definitely smile if you saw a hand sanitiser with the message – “The Lazy Hand Wash.”
In fact, all this inspired me to create a few of my own.
For the sandwich bread, I would say:
“Take me, and I promise to keep your meaty secrets.”
For a drill machine, probably I would put some attitude:
“Nobody ignores me.”
Good day to all who read my blog.
Keep having fun with words, and don’t forget to pass on these contagious smiles.
Richa