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Claims in taglines

by marciayudkin
5 replies
I came across this passage nearly at the end of a very long article in USA Today about Trip Advisor:

And in 2011, the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom launched an investigation into TripAdvisor's use of the slogan "Reviews you can trust." The following year, it held the company "should not have implied that all the reviews that appeared on its website were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted."
TripAdvisor changed its slogan to "Reviews from our community."
Anyone know of similar cases where companies had their feet held to the fire because of claims made in a tagline?

Marcia Yudkin

P.S. The link for the article is here - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...say/820094001/ - but most of the article is not about advertising per se.
#advertising #claims #taglines
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve The Copywriter
    Marcia,

    Yonks ago here in Blighty - there was a bit of a fuss with a chocolate bar (albeit they had used the slogan for years).

    A Mars A Day Helps You Work Rest And Play.


    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve The Copywriter
    Another one, again not contemporary, it was many years ago which I think had to be stopped (after a long campaign).

    For Mackeson Stout (bit like a beer actually more like a Guinness).

    "looks good, tastes good, and by golly it does you good"


    Steve


    P.S. Now it is a "ghost brand", still produced in the UK but sadly and bad news for copywriters no advertising, promotion or tagline (sobs).

    Guinness frequently advertises and has won many awards for its successful and at times breathtakingly brilliant campaigns.

    Because it takes ages to pour the Ad agencies often used the tagline "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait"

    Fiendishly clever by not making direct "claims" that the product is good just inferring it is.

    And yes sales went through the roof.
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  • Profile picture of the author DABK
    Does one company suing another one over slogans count? Then here's an article about 8 of them: 8 Times Companies Faced Lawsuits for Their Slogans | Mental Floss.

    Other than that, a while back, Sketchers got in trouble with this: Get in Shape Without Setting Foot in a Gym... By the way, I'd buy shoes that would do that for me in a jiffy!
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    No specific cases here I know of Marcia but any time a company moves away from being authentic or genuine, they can get into dicey situations. Sticking to the basics may not be sexy but it is how empires are built. Simple, plain, direct, clear benefits are the real business foundation builders.

    Ryan
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    A couple of different instances of the same issue.

    Back when we lived in Minnesota, the state fair was an annual ritual. Especially the food.

    One of the popular items was the "foot long hotdog", until some killjoy started measuring them and discovered that few of them were actually 12" long. Some were 12.25, some 11.75, etc. So the publicity hounds at this so-called "public service organization" sued.

    The next year, all of the same booths sold "about a foot long hotdogs."

    Many years later, Subway went through the same flap about selling foot long subs.
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