Slogans & Mottos

One of the things about getting older is remembering some of the slogans we heard that really changed our lives over time. The down side is seeing how many of those slogans have been abandoned or worse yet, have been reversed. A few come to mind like “Satisfaction Guaranteed Or Your Money Back”; “To Protect & To Serve”; “Fly The Friendly Skies”; “Takes A Licking And Keeps On Ticking”, and so many, many more. I’ll bet you can think of a lot more in fact, here’s a little challenge for you. On a piece of paper, write down everyone you can think of, the company or group that claimed it, and if it’s still valid today. I think you’ll be surprised how few still exist or still mean the same.

One of the things that Dr. Deming preached in his first book and continued to preach throughout his work was that slogans and proclamations by organizations are very rarely effective and in the long run will work against the organization. Some slogans seem timeless and when they disappear it is simply a tragedy to the public, especially to those that have been loyal to the organization through thick and thin. In other cases the slogan has been abandoned because of organizational changes or a lack of popularity or, worst of all, because the organization simply could no longer live up to the slogan. And lastly, is the case where the slogan simply did not ring true. Regardless of the reason, it leaves those loyal believers in complete disbelief and doubting any others that might come along.

Life has plenty of it’s own as well. When I was growing up slogans like “Do unto others …. “; “A man is only as good as his word”; “Judge not, least you be judged”; and so many more seem to have gone by the way side, in fact if you quizzed the current generation, they frequently return completely blank stairs because they simply have never heard the saying, much less understand it. My father was a good one at tossing these sayings out to me along with a whole lot of “Missouri Expressions”. I used to laugh, but now days I am amazed at just how many stuck. I think I got my biggest appreciation for them when my son came home frustrated one evening, complaining about the course he was taking in debate and I overheard him tell is mother “Oh God mom, I sounded just like HIM today, telling one of the debaters He Who Forgets History Is Doomed To Repeat It”. I don’t remember what they were debating, but I remember rushing down into the basement, hiding next to the furnace so I could laugh without being overheard. My God, I thought, he really is listening!

I think what brought this on was that terrible episode in Chicago on board the United Airlines. There was a perfect example of a company that that no only has forgotten it’s roots, but chosen to put the All Mighty dollar above everything, including their paying customers.

So what’s this all about? Well, in watching the news and reflecting upon just how much the world is changing with the internet, social media, etc, etc, even the hottest, newest sayings seem to fade ever so quickly. I remember laughing at the expression “That’s really gnarly” the first time I heard it and for awhile it was EVERWHERE, almost as bad as Awesome, which is just barely hanging on. Our President appears to have a vocabulary limited in size to maybe 150 words, which has made a few of his expressions popular again, but rarely, and I mean really rarely do you hear any public speaker use meaningful language that is lasting and understood by everyone. It appears that the sign of the times is using only popular speech rather than meaningful speech.

In times where negotiations, treaties, and peaceful endeavors depend upon clearly understood language, one can only wonder if the next world war might be caused by a simple misunderstanding of the words .....