Words: they\u2019re everywhere. They\u2019re blaring from TVs, pouring out of radios, glowing on computer screens, and even sitting as ink on an ancient medium known as \u201cpaper.” I\u2019ve read accounts that claimed that Americans were, on average, consuming over 13 hours a day of media.<\/p>\n
Is that an accurate number? No idea. But it\u2019s still a reminder that it\u2019s hard to craft a message that punches through all the clutter. Saipan isn\u2019t aloof from that reality.<\/p>\n
Anyway, this isn\u2019t really a new situation. It\u2019s as old as mass media itself.<\/p>\n
I like to reflect on some of the old-school efforts that punched through the clutter and into the memories of the public. There are nuggets of wisdom to mine from this stuff.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going from pure memory on this because these examples are, indeed, so very memorable. Here\u2019s what I recall:<\/p>\n
– \u2018\u0392lue, blue, blue\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n This isn\u2019t really old school, but it\u2019s hometown so it gets special bonus points.<\/p>\n I first encountered this in 1997, so it must have been pretty fresh at the time. It came from a CNMI tourism TV ad that was crafted for the Japanese market. The ad showcased Saipan\u2019s beautiful scenery.<\/p>\n The ad\u2019s slogan was: \u201cBlue, blue, blue.\u201d It must have been memorable to tourists, since I sometimes heard them saying those words when I\u2019d fly helicopter air tours around Saipan.<\/p>\n As I recall, the ad was created by the I&S advertising agency in Tokyo. I had a copy of it on tape. I\u2019ve since lost it. If anyone can scare up a copy to give me, I\u2019d sure like to have it.<\/p>\n And now we move to the truly old school days, and most, if not all, of the following comes from the \u201970s:<\/p>\n – \u2018You deserve a break today.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The TV jingle went like this: \u201cYou deserve a break today, so get up and get away to McDonald\u2019s.\u201d That ditty must be four decades old and it still has hooks in my brain.<\/p>\n – \u2018Have it your way!\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n In the burger industry, McDonald\u2019s had an arch rival in Burger King.<\/p>\n Burger King came on strong with TV spots that featured a friendly, happy lady as a Burger King worker. The ads open with a slice-of-life angle: the worker is taking orders from customers who have special requests for how their burgers are made. Oh, did I mention that the worker is friendly and happy?<\/p>\n In fact, mere speech can\u2019t contain her enthusiasm. She soon breaks into song: \u201cHold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don\u2019t upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way.\u201d<\/p>\n The concept worked its way into common speech. Your boss might growl at you, \u201cThis ain\u2019t Burger King, pal. You can\u2019t have it your way.\u201d<\/p>\n – \u2018Everybody doesn\u2019t like something, but nobody doesn\u2019t like Sara Lee.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n This jingle, for the Sarah Lee brand of frozen desserts, is one of the most elegant sentences in the English language. It\u2019s clever. It\u2019s fun. It\u2019s memorable.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve forgotten a lot of things, but I never have not remembered this phrase.<\/p>\n – \u2018The few. The proud. The Marines.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n This recruiting slogan is just six words, but there is a dignity to this phrase that stands tall.<\/p>\n – \u2018Datsun Saves.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve written about this before because this example is so impressive. These two little words, \u201cDatsun Saves,” were featured on TV and in print ads. They served as the tip of a spear that punched through the auto industry\u2019s weighty pile of blah-blah-blah.<\/p>\n You\u2019re familiar with Nissan, the Japanese car maker. Back in the day their U.S. badge was \u201cDatsun.\u201d In the early- to mid-\u201970s, as Japanese cars were trying to get established in the U.S. market, high gas prices and other economic problems were putting the squeeze on the nation\u2019s drivers.<\/p>\n Datsun made the right pitch at the right time to the right people for the right cars.<\/p>\n I have more entries on my list, but I\u2019m out of space. Maybe we\u2019ll pick up the trail some other time.<\/p>\n In the meantime, you\u2019ve got 13 more hours of media to consume today, so I\u2019d better let you get going. Me, I\u2019m going to grab a burger. Something tells me I deserve it.<\/p>\n Visit Ed Stephens Jr. at EdStephensJr.com. His column runs every Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Words: they\u2019re everywhere. They\u2019re blaring from TVs, pouring out of radios, glowing on computer screens,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,4396,4397,406],"class_list":["post-201088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-agency","tag-burger-king","tag-sarah-lee","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}