I was doing a little spring cleaning at my office, and I came across a piece of paper with some unrelated notes on it. There was something about a meeting, a phone number with no name attached, and then a little note that made me laugh. I said to my coworker Rob, “You know how you often tell me I’m good with words and generally pretty clever?” He agreed. “Well, take a look at this.” I handed him the paper and pointed to the note, but he understandably couldn’t read all of my handwriting so I had to then read it aloud: “Be Here or Be a Sphere – for a gym campaign.” “That’s not bad,” Rob said. “It’s horrible! What are you talking about? Be a sphere? That’s awful!” “You don’t think some gym somewhere is using that slogan?” “I sure hope not,” I said, “because it’s fucking terrible.”
I don’t know why I ever thought that would be a good idea (especially since I don’t work with gym owners who are looking for slogans), but I even put a little star next to it. It’s not catchy, there’s an extra syllable in there that throws the whole thing off, and…it doesn’t really make sense. “Round” makes sense (but doesn’t rhyme), while “sphere” is too extreme, a bit confusing, and way over-complicated. Kinda like my retelling of this tale, I suppose. Fine, I can take a hint.
Slogans. Slogans.
Sometimes they are perfect, to the point and easily remembered.
But other times…….
Example. I’m a roofing contractor and I have a tendency to look at other companies trucks when I’m on the road.
So, while on the 405 one day last week, I spotted a roofing truck and looked at the side of the truck for the company name. There emblazoned on the side of the truck was the company name. “House Your Roof”.
I did a double take. Repeating to myself the name. Did they mean to say :”Roof Your House’? Was it a mistake?
I can understand answering the phone and saying, How’s your Roof…in a question mark tone of voice. But in writing??????? That’s just bullshit!!