Category: Tagline

#54 Stop & Shop

Chaz DeSimone 4 Comments

54 Stop & Shop

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This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few min­utes to download.
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Amper­Art #54, Stop & Shop, is the lat­est in the Amper­Art Adver­tis­ing Slo­gan series. But far more impor­tant, it’s an hon­or­able men­tion to all you die-​hard Black Fri­day shop­pers who prob­a­bly are read­ing this on your brand new 90%-off tablet, smart­phone, or even flat screen tv–after wait­ing in line all night, get­ting crushed by thou­sands of oth­er bum­bling idiots (I meant to say savvy shop­pers, excuse me) & final­ly get­ting to the cash reg­is­ter with the very last prod­uct of its kind in the store. It’s prob­a­bly cracked & miss­ing a part or two – but who cares, it was on sale!

black fri mob

I should have titled this one Stop & Shop & Drop – as in drop every­thing the sale’s start­ing, or drop dead as you’re tram­pled by the mob.

As stat­ed on dic​tio​nary​.com:

When you stop to think about it, the use of black to describe a mas­sive shop­ping day con­tra­dicts the his­to­ry of oth­er “black” days. In fact, Black Fri­day orig­i­nal­ly ref­ered to Sept 24, 1869, when the col­lapse of a gold spec­u­la­tion plan took the stock mar­ket down. Black Mon­day is known as “the most noto­ri­ous day in finan­cial his­to­ry (Oct 19, 1987.)”

So where did the lucra­tive con­no­ta­tion of Black Fri­day come from? Two pos­si­bil­i­ties exist:

In Philadel­phia, where the sales orig­i­nat­ed, police deemed the retail event Black Fri­day because the amount of traf­fic was a black spot on their hol­i­day weekend.

The more pop­u­lar expla­na­tion has to do with the col­ors of ink accoun­tants tra­di­tion­al­ly used for not­ing prof­it and loss. A com­pa­ny “in the red” is record­ing loss, red ink being the tra­di­tion­al col­or for not­ing neg­a­tive finances. “In the black” means just the oppo­site; thus the notion that Black Fri­day will force those book­keep­ers to put away the red ink, and get out the black.

(See full arti­cle at http://​blog​.dic​tio​nary​.com/​b​l​a​c​k​-​f​r​i​d​a​y​-​m​o​n​d​ay/)

listen up!I may still have my old cell phone, bruised pots & pans, & a lap­top that’s still run­ning an OS from the begin­ning of time, but I also have no crushed toes, no bro­ken ribs, & most of my sanity.

Enjoy your new toys, savvy shoppers.

PRODUCTION NOTES:
Orig­i­nal size: 20x30 inches
Pro­gram: Photoshop
Font: Impact
Image of shop­ping cart: www​.shelf​sup​pli​ers​.net
Image of mob: www​.hud​son​hori​zons​.com/​p​u​b​/​i​m​a​g​e​s​/​b​l​a​c​k​f​r​i​d​a​y​m​o​b​s​.​png

 

#52 Quality & Dependability

Chaz DeSimone 1 Comment

Like my Jeep!

Click on the image to download a high-​resolution file & create your own
gallery quality print. See printing & framing ideas here.
 

Amper­Art #52, QUALITY & DEPENDABILITY, is from the Amper­Art Adver­tis­ing Slo­gan series. It’s a term that used to be more preva­lent, decades before today’s Cheap & Dis­pos­able mer­chan­dise. Oth­er words that come to mind are: sol­id, reli­able, uncon­di­tion­al­ly guar­an­teed (not just a lim­it­ed war­ran­ty) & ser­vice with a smile.

 

listen up!I remem­ber when prod­ucts were made with qual­i­ty & they were tru­ly depend­able. Not so much any­more (except for Jeeps & iPhones & OXO*). But I am very glad that I have friends who fit the descrip­tion of QUALITY & DEPENDABILITY. My fam­i­ly & friends are of the high­est integri­ty — hon­est, gen­uine, sin­cere — & they are very depend­able — from help­ing out in a pinch to being on time. Unlike most of today’s prod­ucts, my friends are not disposable!

*My love affair with OXO

(as in hugs & kiss­es, although that’s not what the name was intend­ed to imply)

OXO is an out­stand­ing com­pa­ny, tru­ly the def­i­n­i­tion of QUALITY & DEPENDABILITY. I love the visu­al & com­fort­able styling of their prod­ucts (which is most­ly kitchen­ware), the care­ful­ly R&D’d use­ful­ness (unlike some gad­gets that are more dif­fi­cult to use than if the task was ren­dered man­u­al­ly), & even the name & logo. Okay, very much the name & logo, even though I’m not a fan of red.

Their absolute­ly no-​questions-​asked guarNow I even enjoy doing my dishes!antee was put to the test recent­ly when my OXO soap-​dispensing dish brush broke (quite sur­pris­ing­ly — although I use it con­stant­ly as it even turns wash­ing dish­es into a like­able task). In search­ing for the instruc­tions to get a replace­ment, I thor­ough­ly enjoyed vis­it­ing sev­er­al pages on the OXO web­site, as each one intro­duced me to anoth­er amaz­ing facet of their com­pa­ny: the ori­gin of the name; how each prod­uct is devel­oped; & the per­son­al­i­ties & hob­bies of their employ­ees. One of those won­der­ful employ­ees, a cheer­ful woman by the name of Brooke, answered my ques­tions about the bro­ken brush & she struck up a con­ver­sa­tion as if we were old friends.

“Would you like the same mod­el or the new­er mod­el with added fea­tures?” (New­er, of course — & I do like the added fea­tures, includ­ing the fact that it’s com­plete­ly black, no red, not even the logo.) She asked if I could send a pho­to of the bro­ken part — but it’s okay if I could­n’t. (I did.) She said they’ll send a replace­ment out imme­di­ate­ly. (They did. Imme­di­ate­ly.)

Brooke even sub­scribed to my per­son­al design project (which you’re read­ing now), Amper​Art​.com, which real­ly showed me how kind & con­sid­er­ate the Oxo­ni­ans are (their term, not mine). Hey! “Kind & Considerate”…that’ll be a new Amper­Art creation!

In case you’re won­der­ing…no, this is not a spon­sored endorse­ment. I sim­ply love OXO! (They say it’s pro­nounced “ox-​oh” but I pre­fer “o‑x-​o” & when I told Brooke why, she even not­ed my rea­son.) Some­day I’ll write an amaz­ing tes­ti­mo­ni­al about my ’96 Jeep which just won’t quit, or Apple, which is ahead of any oth­er device by eons, & my lat­est awe-​inspiring dis­cov­ery, Ther­moWorks, design­ers & man­u­fac­tur­ers of pre­cise & styl­ish bar­beque ther­mome­ters (as well as oth­er pro & semi-​pro kitchen & temperature-​related prod­ucts). Their qual­i­ty & styling is matched only by their incred­i­ble cus­tomer ser­vice, includ­ing Jenean Skousen with whom I had the plea­sure of plac­ing an order today. More about this com­pa­ny & their won­der­ful bar­beque “toys” (that kept me from burn­ing the food for the first time ever) in the upcom­ing Amper­Art issue “Low & Slow.” [Ther­moWorks rave review added April 23, 2018.]

You will prob­a­bly enjoy the OXO web­site (oxo​.com), espe­cial­ly the about page for some inter­est­ing facts & fig­ures. Fur­ther down the page, you’ll expe­ri­ence a refresh­ing­ly human expe­ri­ence as you learn about the employ­ees’ favorite hob­bies, pets, lan­guages & inven­tive uses for their prod­ucts (use the spaghet­ti strain­er as a backscratch­er). If you want a per­son­al review of my OXO expe­ri­ence, just email me, or read about my favorite dish­wash­ing tool, even more than the auto­mat­ic dish­wash­er, here.

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QUALITY
of  each Amper­Art design & the
DEPENDABILITY
of one issue per month, guaranteed. 

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Thank you.

 

PRODUCTION NOTES:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: InDesign
Fonts: Copperplate, Industria, English Script (ampersand)
Inspiration: Maytag washing machines, Craftsman tools, Jeeps — all from the 1950s & 60s

#28 Good & Good For You

Chaz DeSimone 4 Comments

#28 Good & Good For You

Click to view full-​size or download hi-​rez image for gallery-​quality printing and framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

Orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed  near­ly a year ago as part of my upcom­ing Health & Nutri­tion series, I am releas­ing #28 Good & Good For You as my August 2013 con­tri­bu­tion to the Adver­tis­ing Slo­gans series.

Scour­ing the Inter­net to find out what brand used this slo­gan, I sim­ply can’t find it. So maybe it was nev­er actu­al­ly a prod­uct slo­gan. But it sounds like one, so I’ve select­ed the hottest item in the uni­verse to car­ry the tagline. See “chaz sez” below.

In the process of search­ing, I came across some very inter­est­ing ad cam­paigns & slo­gans from the past cen­tu­ry. Here’s one that also includes a “hall of fame” of great old ads, includ­ing many from Euro­pean prod­ucts (the web­site is in the UK):

Here are two oth­er lists, the first con­tain­ing 400 slo­gans (of which many famous ones such as the Milk Advi­so­ry Board­’s “Got Milk?” are curi­ous­ly missing):

chazsezLOGO-85x64

Since I can’t find a com­mer­cial brand that ever used the phrase “Good & Good For You,” I’ll tag it as my own per­son­al slo­gan for the hottest prod­uct in the uni­verse: good ol’ fash­ioned sun­shine. It’s def­i­nite­ly Good & Good For You, although I won’t be get­ting any this Labor Day week­end, being unusu­al­ly over­cast & gloomy in good ol’ sun­ny South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. If you can recall where the slo­gan was orig­i­nal­ly used, please let me know. But it will still be my per­son­al tagline for that big ball of fire in the sky.

 

PRODUCTION NOTES
Original dimensions: 20″ x 30″
Program: Illustrator
Font: Plantin

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