Political Slogans to Vie For

Marketing guru Steve Cone offers his choice for the best and worst political slogans of all time and explains how a slogan can make or break a campaign

by David Kiley

Quick. What was John Kerry's Presidential ad slogan in 2004? How about Ronald Reagan's in 1984? Barack Obama's in 2008? Mitt Romney's?

A political junkie might recall that Reagan's 1984 slogan was "It's Morning in America," because it was delivered in some very memorable ads. But veteran marketing executive and Republican strategist and fundraiser Steve Cone, who has a book about memorable ad slogans and tag lines, says anyone who remembers Kerry's "Let America be America Again," is either a serial C-Span watcher or a former Kerry campaign staffer.

2008 Candidates: No Clear Edge

As the U.S. draws closer to the general election cycle following Super Tuesday, Cone says candidates hoping for the White House might do well to remember that the best, most memorable ad slogans usually win. And he says, based on his review of Presidential election history and the candidates' current slogans in his book, "No one still in the race after Super Tuesday has given themselves an edge when it comes to a memorable slogan."

The most repeated word of the campaign is "change," owing to Senator Barack Obama's adoption of the word in stump speeches and his ad slogan. The whole slogan is "Change We Can Believe In." The trouble is, says Cone, "change" is such a generic word that while those following the campaigns could associate that word with Obama, "I doubt many could tell you what the actual line is…and that's not good when you are trying to separate yourself from a field of candidates."

It's so generic, says Cone, that Senator Hillary Clinton was able to take it for her own, adopting, "The Strength and Experience to Bring Real Change" after Obama had already staked out "change." Senator John McCain then used the Democrats "change" rhetoric as a cudgel against his rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney because of Romney's "changed" positions over the years on such issues as abortion and gay marriage.

Strategists Who Aren't Writers

Ad slogans have been wrongly trivialized in the modern era, says Cone, who studied slogans going well back into the 19th century for his forthcoming book,Powerlines: Words That Sell Brands, Grip Fans, and Sometimes Change History (Bloomberg Press). In almost every case, the candidate with the best written slogan in the election went onto the White House.

• Dwight Eisenhower had "I Like Ike," vs. "The Experienced Candidate" for Adlai Stevenson.

• Lyndon Johnson had "All the Way with LBJ," while Barry Goldwater went with, "In Your Heart, You Know He's Right."

• Franklin Roosevelt had "Happy Days Are Here Again," while Al Smith campaigned on the leaden, "Honest. Able. Fearless."

One of the problems in modern politics, says Cone, chief marketing officer of marketing firm Epsilon, is that campaign political strategists often write the line rather than creative people with a flair for writing. Reagan's ad strategy team, by contrast, included Hal Riney and Phil Dusenberry from BBDO Worldwide (OMC), two of the top creative talents in Madison Avenue history. Cone has worked for corporate clients such as Citigroup (C), Fidelity, and Apple (AAPL), as well as for the Republican National Committee and political candidates such as former Senator Birch Bayh and John Connally, the former Texas governor and Presidential candidate.

Republican Hits and Misses

In 1980, Reagan's official slogan was "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" That was a question Reagan constantly reinforced in his stump speech and in debates, and it was repeated in campaign literature and even on stickers. "Every piece of communication strategy in both 1980 and '84 stemmed from the slogan that the team developed," says Cone. Walter Mondale's slogan was "America Needs a Change."

Republican front-runner McCain is not currently using a slogan, though he still occasionally refers to the one that had been his official slogan, "Straight Talk Express." Says Cone: "McCain should go back to it and re-emphasize it everywhere, because he owns it." Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's slogan is "Faith. Family. Freedom." Says Cone, "It's a good line that fits his Christian positioning, but I'm not sure where the freedom comes from, because we are all free here." Mitt Romney's slogan is "True Strength for America's Future." That, quips Cone, is "a ponderous line of copy."

Going back to the 19th century, some candidates used slogans to go negative on their opponents. In 1884, a razor-thin election between Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine, Cleveland's team adopted, "Blaine. Blaine. James G. Blaine, the Continental liar from the State of Maine." Blaine's team responded with "Ma. Ma. Where's My Pa," a dig at reports that Cleveland had sired a child with a woman before he was married. Both lines became de facto slogans for each campaign, with neither having a positive slogan for themselves.