The Slogan War
By gbrading 1 Comments
The holiday season is ushered in once again, and is marked as usual by sweltering humidity and temperatures, heavy storm showers, and enough assorted insects buzzing around to keep a biologist excited for years. And of course that means that many people are jet-setting off to parts unknown and known, or rushing down in their cars and caravans to the South Coast (if you live in Britain), utterly destroying our planet for future generations, and of course I am no exception. In fact, I am going on holiday to Malaysia, specifically the province of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Two weeks of Sun, Sand and Jungle. In fact, there might be slightly more jungle than sand, because the holiday includes a section of hiking through the rainforest, which should be exciting. I'm flying out via Hong Kong, with a stopover there for two days, and thenceforth onward to Kota Kinabalu. I will be absent for a fortnight, not that it would affect or concern anyone or anything. So that's that part over and done with, now onto the real business.
The other half of this blog is to do with weighing up slogans, specifically those for Sony's PS3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii in Europe (and maybe North America as well, I'm not sure). The PS3's slogan is the seductive and reasonably incomprehensible This is Living. It's normally written in the stlye you might find on the front of one of those expensive surfing T-shirts by Quicksilver or Rip Curl, all friendly and inviting. I for one don't understand this slogan particularly much. Are they trying to claim that the PS3 is alive, or maybe that you can on feel alive if you own a PS3? Possibly 'this' refers to the feeling you get from playing on a PS3, or that you are 'living' the dream of owning the product. We may never know. All we do know is that for whatever purpose, marketing at Sony believed that advertising that their console had consciousness would sell greater numbers. Still, it would look good on a T-shirt.
Next is the Xbox 360, who went for the solid, no nonsense but still incredibly cryptic and unfathomable Jump in. The font mimics that of the Xbox 360 ordinary title, bold and sleek. Naturally, they are offering you the possibility to jump right in to playing the game of your choice, and that the Xbox is the perfect device to do it. However, again there could easily be other meanings. 'Jump' into the swimming pool, 'jump' for joy because you own an Xbox, 'jump' out of the window. Maybe we should be jumping into the Xbox physically, by a matter transference beam. To conclude, Microsoft are just anxious that you jump for whatever reason. The above picture is the only one I could find on the internet where the slogan is easily visible, and isn't a particularly good example, but there we go. Wouldn't look good on a T-shirt.
Nintendo Wii seems to have had a crisis of faith with their slogan. It began in 2006 as Wii Move You, but today it seems to have changed to We promise to keep the world smiling... In the slogan war, I think Nintendo easily fail. First, their original slogan is reasonably entertaining, as the Wii is the only console which actually makes you get up and move around. However, there have to be a mountain of better puns out there (Wii Will Rock You?), and they really should have put more thought into it. The new 'slogan' (which seems more like a mission statement really, but it was the only thing close to a slogan to be found in the Nintendo Press Conference at E3) abandons all norms that a proper marketing phrase should follow. It doesn't roll off the tongue. It isn't short. Yes, it's inspirational, but in the same way that every Miss World entrant always says they dream for World Peace. I am made to grimace with suppressed rage at all the happy, smiling (and irritating) people. Wouldn't be seen dead on a T-shirt.
The winner of 'The Slogan War'? In terms of solely T-shirt design appeal, Sony. In terms of inspirationality and sales value, it's going to be a toss between Sony and Microsoft. And now, I must fly.
Giant Bomb Addendum
There is no Giant Bomb addendum, apart from these song lyrics:
I'm walking by the sea, and the shingle sings for me,
Crabs are swimming down amongst the starfish.
The rocks all clatter down, and the seagulls fly around,
But the whole trip rubs it in that time is passing.