Slogans

A slogan is a short and memorable phrase used in advertising to motivate consumers to purchase a product. It can also be a descriptive catch phase that is associated with a movement or phenomenon. The purpose of creating a slogan is to generate instant recognition of a product or affiliation with a viewpoint. Slogans can be found on teeshirts and hats, bumperstickers and billboards or even chanted by large groups of people who are united in support of a cause. A slogan is meant to entice and enlist consumers and supporters to products and beliefs respectively. The success of a slogan lies in the space between being specific enough to inform and inspire and vague enough not to exclude new followers or embolden decent. 

One of the greatest product slogans of all-time was and is Nike’s “Just Do It”. From its inception, it inspired a mindset within the consumer population that athletic gear, especially clothes and shoes were not specifically for athletic competition or exclusively intended for athletes. Nike enlisted people from all walks of life to buy their products to wear everyday and to every type of event. If they had used the slogan “Athletes, Just Do It” they would have immediately contracted the mass appeal of Nike products. Their slogan was all inclusive of people whether you were an Olympic hopeful or a regular person walking to the bank. It did not require you to be anything or do anything physical. All it did was subliminally tell you that you should buy the shoes or shirt because they were cool. When the offshoot of the “Just Do It “ campaign enlisted Michael Jordan they followed the same recipe. The “Be Like Mike” slogan once again included everyone. Nike did not say, “Be Mike”. They knew that most people do not play basketball and that no one but Michael Jordan could be Michael Jordan. But we could all “Be Like Mike” by wearing the same clothes and shoes. Nike’s slogans are a perfect example of all inclusive invitations to embrace and financially support a brand.

One of the worst slogans/catch phases of our time is the scientific descriptive phrase used to define climate change, “Global Warming”. It is a specific aspect of the climate change occurring on Earth but it creates controversy and division. There is scientific data that concludes that our planet is heating up, that polar ice and glaciers are melting and receding at alarming rates, and that cold, fresh water is flowing into the world’s oceans. The warming of the Earth will eventually cause the temperature of the ocean too cool, the salinity and currents to change, and ultimately create ice age conditions. But the slogan/phase “Global Warming” does not implicitly give notice of this scenario and so it creates differences of opinion. Often times the issue of climate change and a discussion of science is lost in the fight over the descriptive phrase “Global Warming”. Huge amounts of energy are expended explaining the slogan instead of discussing the actual problem. The detractors of science enlist followers by making reference to a string of cold days as evidence that the temperature on Earth is not getting “warmer”. They do not refute the science they attack the only thing they can; the faulty slogan “Global Warming”.

“Black Lives Matter” has become the slogan for the fight for an end to police brutality, systemic racism, and societal inequality. There is no logical argument that can be made to deny that people of color face inequality, racism, and physical abuse on a daily basis. Therefore, the movement to end these inequities is completely righteous and without any rational argument to refute its basis and mission. But the slogan “Black Lives Matter” commits the fatal error that all failed slogans make; it is too defined and therefore suggests exclusion, it creates a heated ancillary discussion, and it builds an emotional, albeit illegitimate argument for the opposition.

In the United States, 62% of the population are white and 12.6% are black. That means that there are approximately 205 million white people and 42 million black people in this country. This disparity of demographics creates the harsh reality that a high percentage of the white population must be engaged in and supportive of any movement which is trying to create large scale societal and cultural change. The 205 million white citizens of this country can be loosely divided up into three groups. There are millions of white people, of which I am one, who are not deterred by the attacks on the slogan “Black Lives Matter” or the rants from the opposition of the movement for equality. We do not need to be convinced of the need for change or recruited to support the fight for equality. On the dark side of the conflict there are millions of white people in this country who think that black people are a separate and inferior species of humanity. They will go to their graves clutching their racist and vile opinions. Then there are all the millions of white people who are in the middle of these two extremes. They are the group that needs to be recruited for lasting change to occur and they are watching. So they hear “Black Lives Matter” and they agree but a little voice inside their head says, “But what about me, I am white?” So they listen to hear why they should physically and morally stand up for the “Black Lives Matter” movement but they become distracted by the argument over the slogan. This is fertile ground for the opposition who have no real argument against police brutality and inequality and they seize upon it with their own slogans like “Blue Lives Matter” and “All lives Matter”. Next the movement for equality strays further from its mission by focusing attention on the removal of monuments that are deemed offensive and racist. This further empowers the opposition by giving them a reason to demand police presence and an aggressive governmental law and order stance. In this moment, which was created by a flawed slogan and the deviation it inspired, the focus of the movement is blurred. Some white fence-sitters who are a morally and numerical necessity for success are lost. Those who need to be shocked out of their own subconscious racism stand in quiet support of the current conditions and hide under the veil of law and order. A portion of the complacent and insulated white population turn their attention back to the maintenance of their own privilege. Valuable and necessary support for the movement is lost in the fight over a catch phrase and the destruction of some statues. 

Circling back to climate change there is an applicable analogy. For tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, there have been glaciers on the Earth. These massive formations of ice would appear to be impervious to any force of nature. However in the past twenty years some of them have disappeared entirely and their existence is only evidenced by large valleys in which they once existed. Over the course of two decades, the heat from the sun which was trapped within the Earth’s atmosphere melted some glaciers from being. The natural and unrelenting power of the sun provides an example of what our mindset needs to be. The sun does not take a day off or become distracted by the moon; it rises and sets, burning consistent and bright. If we are to achieve our goal we must not be distracted by defending a slogan or engaging in symbolic gestures of revolt. Like the sun we must singularly and relentlessly focus the heat of our collective power on one objective…universal equality.