Everything MKTG: Here’s What Company Slogans Would Look Like If They Were Actually Honest

According to graphic designer Clif Dickens.

What would it look like if brands were a little more honest?

That’s the question designer Clif Dickens wanted to answer when he started Honest Slogans. He came up with the idea — to pair logos with tongue-in-cheek taglines — after he’d been asked this question one too many times:

So in 2011, the advertising grad took to Tumblr, creating and posting a new slogan every now and then for fun. They went mostly under-the-radar until this one:

“I put the Hot Pockets slogan on Reddit and it got half a million views in one day,” he said. The influx of blog traffic meant Clif was now shooting to create several new slogans each week.
A lot of early slogans were about food and drink, he said, but an increasingly split audience — a mix of younger Tumblr kids and older folks — led him to tap into media companies and apps too.

Still, he’s sometimes surprised as to which slogans elicit the strongest response from readers.
The hardest part of coming up with new slogans on a weekly basis? Trying to walk the line between being clever and taking a cheap shot.

“The challenge is not to just say something like, ‘This company sucks’ — because that’s not funny.” he said. “I try to come up with things that people can immediately recognize and relate to, and hopefully, laugh about.”

For more, head over to Honest Slogans.

Clif Dickens / honestslogans.com

That's the question designer Clif Dickens wanted to answer when he started Honest Slogans . He came up with the idea — to pair logos with tongue-in-cheek taglines — after he'd been asked this question one too many times:

“I was at a restaurant and I’d ordered a Coke,” Clif, 27, told BuzzFeed. “Without skipping a beat, the waitress asked, “Is Pepsi okay?”. I’d heard it so many times by that point, but I still thought it was funny — and I decided to do something with it.”

So in 2011, the advertising grad took to Tumblr, creating and posting a new slogan every now and then for fun. They went mostly under-the-radar until this one:

Clif Dickens / honestslogans.com

"I put the Hot Pockets slogan on Reddit and it got half a million views in one day," he said. The influx of blog traffic meant Clif was now shooting to create several new slogans each week.

Clif Dickens / honestslogans.com

Clif Dickens / honestslogans.com

Clif Dickens / honestslogans.com

Still, he's sometimes surprised as to which slogans elicit the strongest response from readers.

Clif Dickens / honestslogans.com

“I did one on Subway, and it was really divisive. Some people loved it, some people hated it,” said Clif. “But I think both camps can agree on the bread.”