Right Slogan Is Key to an Ad’s Immortality

Cordell Jackson--at age 69--has finally found fame. But not the way she expected. She was one of the first women in America to form her own record company. She has played electric guitar on Arsenio Hall and David Letterman. And she is about to star in a new Disney movie.

Most consumers don’t know about any of this. Just about everyone, however, has seen the Budweiser TV commercial that features the bespectacled Jackson showing a young rock star how to play guitar.

Those who see the spot remember it--and her--for one particular word she utters. After impatiently listening to the young guitarist, she tells him he’s pretty good. Then she looks into the camera, puckers her faces and shouts, “Not!”

This is what advertising has come to. An expression--stolen from the lexicon of today’s youth--is now being associated with one of the world’s best-selling beers.

Those who have created some of the more memorable lines in advertising say this is the opposite of what most advertisers strive for. Most hope to create original ad slogans--exclusively for their own products--that find their way into pop culture.

“Not!” is not original. The verbal sneer, sort of a last-second put-down, has been used on “Saturday Night Live” comedy skits for more than a year--and picked up by MTV. It is repeated in the hit film “Wayne’s World.” But its use in a Budweiser ad that has aired hundreds of times is what has made it a household expression. Even Disneyland recently began using the phrase in its ads.

Pepsi-Cola is not above creative borrowing either. Last summer it embraced the teen expression “chill out,” wrapping it into a costly promotion.

“There’s a tremendous danger in using an expression unless you’re the product that helped make it popular,” said Howard Cohen, who created two of the top ad slogans of all time for Alka-Seltzer: “Try it, you’ll like it,” and, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

The real disaster, he said, is when an advertiser tries to capitalize on an expression that is already overused. “You become very un-cool,” said Cohen, chairman of the Los Angeles agency Cohen/Johnson.

Budweiser executives concede that they may have picked up on the expression a bit late. “If we were doing it over again,” said Tom Sharbaugh, vice president of Budweiser brands, “we might think twice. You don’t want to be on the down side of a curve.”

The expression probably has a much smaller chance of being a hit than a brand-new ad slogan, said Cliff Freeman, who in 1984 concocted the slogan “Where’s the beef” for Wendy’s.

Often, it’s not what is said that makes a slogan click, but who says it, said Freeman, chairman of the New York agency Cliff Freeman & Partners. The Wendy’s ad featured an outspoken, elderly woman--actress Clara Peller--complaining about the lack of beef in her hamburger. “It was putting Clara in that role that made it work,” Freeman said.

Once the public begins chanting a phrase from a TV commercial, it usually extends the life of the campaign, said Phil Dusenberry, vice chairman of the New York agency BBDO Worldwide. “The trick to longevity is coming up with new ways to make it seem fresh.”

Back in 1979, Dusenberry penned the phrase “We bring good things to life” while in the back of a taxi. Since then, General Electric has spun dozens of commercials from it. More recently, Dusenberry’s agency created the popular “You’ve got the right one baby” slogan for Pepsi. When the agency sent the slogan to a composer for music, the writer needed two notes to finish the song. He added “uh, huh”--which became the catch phrase.

The great hope of any advertiser is that a public figure--perhaps even the President--will repeat its slogan. That’s why there were big smiles at Isuzu when President Reagan compared Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to the car maker’s lying pitchman, Joe Isuzu.

“You can’t really plan this stuff,” said Peter Stranger, president of the Los Angeles office of the agency Della Femina McNamee, which created the Isuzu campaign.

Of course, that doesn’t stop Stranger from trying. About 15 months ago, his agency went to client Magic Mountain and proposed a campaign that featured the word “not” as a punch-line. “We said, this is how kids are talking,” Stranger said. But the client said no.

“Not” can even be found on the backs of Budweiser T-shirts--next to Cordell Jackson’s smiling mug. “I know I’ll outlast that Wendy’s woman,” said Jackson. “All she said was ‘Where’s the beef?’ I can play guitar.”

Briefly. . . .

The Los Angeles agency Eisaman, Johns & Laws was awarded the $3-million ad account for the Los Angeles sportswear maker Z. Cavaricci. . . . Hudson’s Grill, a family restaurant chain in Ventura, has named Los Angeles-based Asher/Gould as its agency. . . . The Huntington Beach ad agency Clark & Westlund Inc. has won the account for San Diego’s Venture Software. . . . The Los Angeles agency Italia/Gal will hire six employees after winning the ad business for Costa Mesa-based Del Taco. . . . A new bimonthly Encino-based trade magazine targeted at the film and commercial production community, ON Production, is being distributed this week. . . . Warner Music Group Inc., National Broadcasting Co. and Coca-Cola Co. announced a three-way marketing promotion to culminate with NBC’s telecast of the Summer Olympics. . . . The Ad Club of Los Angeles celebrates its 80th birthday with a luncheon today at the Beverly Hilton featuring a talk by Ad Council President Ruth Wooden. . . . The Los Angeles disc jockey team Mark and Brian will host the 26th Annual Belding Awards on Saturday evening at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.