An earworm is a song or song fragment that gets stuck in your head, on endless repeat, for a day or a week or more. According to the experts, about 90 percent of people experience one at least once a week.
Advertising slogans or catchphrases might not be earworms, exactly, but they do tend to impinge on our consciousness with great regularity, especially while the campaigns featuring them are running.
Over long periods, every time you’d see a commercial for Life cereal, you’d hear “Mikey likes it” — and probably replay the phrase in your head for a while afterwards. Likewise, if somebody mentions “the real thing,” chances are you’ll think of Coke, even if the phrase was uttered in completely unrelated circumstances. And the evocative sensuousness of the phrase “Finger lickin’ good” quite possibly helped make KFC one of the top 10 chicken chains in America.
Click here for 12 food and drink slogans you can’t forget
These slogans imprint themselves through the simple tactic of constant repetition. For a given period of time, virtually every billboard, internet or magazine ad, TV commercial, and product package is likely to repeat the same succinct branding message. Slogans introduced in high-traffic contexts, like the Super Bowl, may affect us even more strongly. (These are the biggest Super Bowl advertisers of all time.)
Even when new campaigns take their place, older oft-repeated taglines tend to stay with us, sometimes becoming part of the vernacular — like “Where’s the beef?” or “Breakfast of champions.”
Here are a dozen particularly indelible food and drink slogans. Even if you haven’t thought of some of them in ages, you’ll probably start thinking of them again now.
1. America runs on Dunkin’
> Product or company: Dunkin’
When this slogan was launched in 2006, the firm called it “the most significant repositioning effort in the company’s 55-year-history.” It was so successful that what was once known as Dunkin’ Donuts now calls itself simply Dunkin’.
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2. Betcha can’t eat just one
> Product or company: Lay’s potato chips
The best-known Lay’s slogan ever, this challenge to snackers originally appeared in the early 1960s.
3. Good to the last drop
> Product or company: Maxwell House coffee
First blended by a grocer in Nashville in 1892 and named for a hotel in the city, Maxwell House became America’s best-selling coffee brand, holding that distinction until the 1980s. The company began using its notable motto in 1915. For a time, publicity claimed that it had been coined by then-ex-president Theodore Roosevelt, though in fact it was the work of a corporate executive.
4. I’m lovin’ it
> Product or company: McDonald’s
This gargantuan burger chain launches new slogans often, but this one became by far the longest-running of them. The public first experienced it in 2003, when Justin Timberlake sang a jingle with this title.
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5. It’s finger lickin’ good
> Product or company: KFC
In the early 1950s, the manager of a franchise unit of what was then called Kentucky Fried Chicken appeared in an early TV commercial, in which he was seen to eat some chicken and then lick his fingers. A viewer complained about this breach of etiquette, to which the man replied “Well, it’s finger lickin’ good” — and the company promptly adopted the slogan.
6. It’s the real thing
> Product or company: Coca-Cola
Despite indications to the contrary in the series finale of “Mad Men,” Don Draper didn’t create Coca-Cola’s “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” commercial, in which the line “It’s the real thing” first appeared. It was conceived by a real-life ad executive and made its debut in 1971.
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7. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands
> Product or company: M&M’s
These little bites of chocolate coated in hard candy shells first appeared in 1941. Some 13 years later, their manufacturer, Mars, Inc., trademarked their quintessential catchphrase, based on the candy’s handheld stability.
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8. Mikey likes it
> Product or company: Life cereal
This unforgettable tagline, referring to the Quaker Oats cereal brand Life, was introduced in a TV commercial airing originally in 1972. The company stuck with it for more than a dozen years, making it one of the longest running commercials in history.
9. The breakfast of champions
> Product or company: Wheaties
An ad executive working for General Mills, makers of Wheaties, is said to have spontaneously come up with this famous slogan in the early 1930s for use on a Minneapolis ballpark billboard. The phrase became such a part of the American lexicon that celebrated author Kurt Vonnegut borrowed it as the title of a 1973 novel.
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10. The incredible, edible egg
> Product or company: American Egg Board
The American Egg Board, dedicated to the marketing and promotion of eggs, introduced this slogan and an accompanying jingle in 1976 or ’77 (sources differ). A new version of the jingle appeared in 2012, updated to reflect revised nutritional information.
11. The more you eat, the more you want
> Product or company: Cracker Jack
This is the granddaddy of food advertising taglines, introduced in 1896 — a mere three years after the product itself, which is now indelibly associated with baseball games, was introduced to the public at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
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12. Where’s the beef?
> Product or company: Wendy’s
First heard in 1984, as uttered by actress Clara Peller in TV commercials for this leading burger chain, the phrase quickly became a cultural touchstone. Among other things, it was the title of a hit country song, appeared on products ranging from bumper stickers to a board game, and was appropriated by 1984 presidential candidate Walter Mondale in a debate with opponent Gary Hart.
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