19 Ridiculously Punchy Taglines That Are The Gold Standard of Advertising

Designed by Beyond Definition

Has a line of copy ever left you breathless?

For example, whenever I see “Got Milk?” I have a tangible reaction. I can visualize my childhood bedroom, walls covered with hundreds of athletes sporting milk mustaches. Feel my fingers delicately ripping the advertisements out of Sports Illustrated and taping them into a mosaic.

This is the sheer power — and magic — of a well-written tagline. While brands place considerable focus on their name, logo, and creative, a tagline shouldn’t be overlooked. It carries as much history, recognition, and weight as anything else.

That’s why we’ve curated nineteen of our favorite taglines for you to study, dissect, and scribble in your journal for inspiration. Then, we’ll breakdown what makes these standout and offer some ways you can write a better tagline for your brand.

1. Taste the rainbow. (Skittles)
2. Cold as the Rockies. (Coors)
3. The happiest place on Earth. (Disneyland)
4. Just do it. (Nike)
5. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (M&Ms)
6. Belong anywhere (Airbnb)
7. Find your beach. (Corona)
8. Designed for driving pleasure. (BMW)
9. Let’s go places. (Toyota)
10. Democracy dies in darkness. (Washington Post)
11. What happens here, stays here. (Las Vegas)
12. The breakfast of champions. (Wheaties)
13. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. (UNCF)
14. Be all you can be. (U.S. Army)
15. Quality never goes out of style. (Levi’s)
16. Because You’re Worth It. (L’Oréal Paris)
17. Think Different (Apple)
18. Leave the driving to us. (Grey Hound)
19. A diamond is forever. (De Beers)

The Art + Science of a Great Tagline

Okay, so you’ve read the nineteen taglines above. You can feel the inspiration oozing out of your fingertips like honey. Before pounding your fists against a keyboard hoping to strike gold with your brand’s tagline, you need to understand what makes iconic one’s so…iconic.

Lucky for you, we’ve broken it down:

• Be short and quippy. Fewer than eight words with a resonating factor. Think Different, Just Do It, and Find Your Beach are masterclass examples.
• Communicates a key benefit. What makes you different or better than everyone else. Try and make it as human as possible. When you book with Airbnb, anywhere can be your home. With a Corona in hand, the beach follows you.
• Align with your mission, vision, and values. The mission is the beating heart of your brand. Da Beers diamonds last a lifetime. Greyhound gets you where you need to go. Coors aren’t ice cold–they’re cold as the Rockies.
• It tells a story. M&M’s, for instance, were originally designed to allow easy transport and consumption by the United States military. As you know, heat and chocolate aren’t a favorable combination. Especially when a soldier is trying to handle lethal machinery with sticky fingers. Thus, M&M’s hard, sweet outer shell was invented. And with it, a glorious tagline: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”

Sounds incredibly challenging, right? Yeah, we know.

That’s why we employ a swarm of strategists, copywriters, and marketers, combine it with months of research, a pretty presentation, and a dash of pixie dust to craft a tagline your audience will remember. Let us help you.