Tight Sainthood

Tagline Tyranny

"Agencies waste countless hours concocting slogans of incredible fatuity. […] Notice that all these bromides are interchangeable — any company could use any of them." David Ogilvy, quoted in Michael Bierut's "Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design" (No. 36).

But isn't that the point? It's not an individual tagline that's significant, it's having any tagline at all that's significant. Taglines are anonymous floating signifiers; in most cases the tagline's not about a specifc product or company, and definitely not about product pragmatics or usage: taglines are about distraction and deflection, they're about identification with lifestyles that value taglines, they're about a 1984-esque kenosis of meaning. Not so much the society of the spectacle as the tribes of the taglines.

Labels: books, philosophy

Posted by Jimmy Little @ 07:53; permalink