The Top 10 Most Memorable Marketing Questions Ever Asked
What makes a successful marketing campaign?
Is it the product behind it?
The market research that led to it?
Perhaps it’s the simple fact that it did its job and made the company money?
These are all good answers and anyone — or a mixture of all — could be correct.
You see, marketers know very well that, in order to do their job, they need to be good at getting our attention. In a campaign, this can be done through — among other things –humor, repetition, use of celebrity image, and/or involving your audience by asking a simple question (more on this later.)
Honestly, thinking back, there have been many successful marketing campaigns over the past several decades. And when I say successful, most executives would agree that, a campaign that qualifies to fall under that definition is one that led to higher revenues for the individuals involved.
But, to the public, a good marketing campaign means a lot more than dollars.
A good marketing campaign will make money. A GREAT marketing campaign, however, will help define the decade within which it was created.
Sometimes, a campaign is so good, so memorable, that, not only does it accomplish its economic goals and make money, but it enters the public zeitgeist, burrowing itself in our brains for decades only to be brought up again years in the future when we’re tasked with writing a blog.
… That brings us to today.
Join us as we take a look back over the decades at the Top 10 Most Memorable Marketing Questions Ever Asked!
10. Does she… or doesn’t she? (Clairol 1956)
The world of 1956 was very different than the one we live in today.
In direct contrast to our Twitter centric world of today where everyone shares EVERYTHING, the women of 1956 did not always deem it proper to discuss their feminine hygiene or daily upkeep routines in mixed company.
And when it came to the taboo subject of aging (gasp) no secret was kept locked away tighter.
The ad executives at Foote, Cone, & Belding in Manhattan knew this all too well and when they were tasked to come up with a campaign for Clairol women’s hair coloring, they knew exactly the direction they needed to head in.
Clairol’s “Does she… or doesn’t she?” campaign introduced average women to the world of dying their hair (a routine generally practiced by loose women or prostitutes at the time.)
By asking the question “Does she… or doesn’t she?” Clairol suggests that the results of using their hair coloring are so seamless and natural in appearance that, “… only her hairdresser knows for sure!”
This campaign took off like a rocket and soon everyone was asking the question “Does she… or doesn’t she?”
9. Do You Yahoo!? (Yahoo.com 1996)
In the mid 1990’s, the internet was taking the world by storm.
Nothing had ever impacted society so much as the introduction of the home computer to the masses, allowing consumers unlimited access to the world wide web and endless amounts of information.
It was during this time that we started to see several web service and search engine providers pop up, trying to vie for our support. This would include Google, Ask Jeeves, AOL and – in 1994 — Yahoo.com.
To make itself stand out from the competition, by 1996, Yahoo introduced the world to its “Do you Yahoo!?” ad campaign which is most famously remembered for its company name being yodeled in their advertisements (sing it with me… yaHOOoo!)
Using almost its entire advertising budget for 1996 to run its first nation-scale ad campaign on television, Yahoo went all in on this promotion, and, at the time, it was a major success for the company.
Though, in the end, Yahoo could not keep up with today’s powerhouses such as Google.com, in the mid 90’s this ad campaign successfully took the world by storm and made Yahoo.com one of the industry’s leading contenders.
8. Is Pepsi Ok? (Pepsi Cola 2019)
The Super Bowl is one of the most anticipated times of the year.
Besides, ya know, the football thing, people love to see what creativity will come out in the commercials that air during this prime timeslot.
Knowing how many customers they could reach, Pepsi Cola decided to go all in and, for Super Bowl LIII, they decided to launch their “Is Pepsi Ok?” campaign.
Featuring Steve Carell and Cardi B, this campaign took the all-too-common situation of being asked if Pepsi is okay at a restaurant – instead of Coke – and placed some of today’s celebrities in the middle to help let us know that Pepsi is, in fact, MORE than okay!
Though extremely successful for Pepsi, Co. the global reach and overall memorability of the campaign pails in comparison to some campaigns ranked higher on this list.
7. WHASSUP? (Anheuser- Busch Budweiser 1999)
Going down as one of the most successful (AND ANNOYING) marketing campaigns of all time, Anheuser-Busch Budweiser’s “WHASSUP” (or WAZZUP) marketing campaign was on the lips of every adolescent and immature adult in 1999.
Not only did the campaign grasp a generation of television viewers, but the phrase WHASSUP entered the public vocabulary, becoming a cheap laugh at every office and keg party across the United States.
Based off of a short film by Charles Stone III that gained notoriety at several film festivals across the country, creative director Vinny Warren and art director Chuck Taylor at the Chicago-based ad agency DBB soon took the idea to August Busch IV, vice president of Anheuser-Busch who immediately took steps to secure the licensing rights to the idea and signed Stone to direct a string of Budweiser TV commercials based on the film.
As simple and lowbrow as the idea was in the public eye, the campaign was a huge success and was awarded the Cannes Grand Prix award and the Grand Clio award among others and was later inducted into the CLIO Hall of Fame.
6. Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon? (Grey Poupon 1980)
You may not know or remember what Grey Poupon even is, but I’m sure at least some of you remember being asked whether or not you, in fact had any!
In 1980, Dijon Mustard company Grey Poupon wanted to promote their product as a high-class item available to everyone.
As such, they came up with the infamous commercial where a man in a luxury car pulls up next to a another man in the back of a luxury car, who just happens to be eating his lunch, and asks him whether or not he has any Grey Poupon. (A move that became so well known in the pop culture world that Mike Meyers himself parodied the commercial in his 1992 hit film Wayne’s World.)
This campaign helped promote Grey Poupon by pointing out that, “one can enjoy the finer things of life with white wine mustard without paying high prices.”
So now you know, when asked whether or not YOU have any Grey Poupon, the correct answer is always, “But of course!”
5. What would you do for a Klondike Bar? (Good Humor-Breyers 1982)
The 1980’s were a huge time for mass marketing campaigns.
With corporations taking hold across the globe, mass amounts of spending going on across the nation, and everyone forced to watch the same 3 channels on television every night, it was definitely an opportune time for marketers to gain the attention of an eager audience.
So in 1982, in promotion of their Klondike Bar ice cream, Good Humor-Breyers asked America, not one question, but an endless list of questions through one simple line… “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?”
The idea was to introduce the new ice cream treat to the world by challenging customers in a fun way by suggesting lighthearted dares in favor of receiving a Klondike Bar.
Would you shave your head for a Klondike Bar?
Would you go streaking down a busy highway for a Klondike Bar?
(You get the idea…)
The campaign proved to be a massive success for Good Humor-Breyers, and remains a relevant campaign slogan to this day.
4. Can you hear me now? (Verizon 2002)
The year was 2002. There we all were, flip phones in hand, walking around in circles with our cellular telephone antennas fully extended continuing to ask the party at the other end of the line whether or not they could in fact, “…hear us now?”
Call dropouts were (and are) a common issue faced by users, especially in the early days of the cell phone.
The team over at Verizon Wireless decided to confront that problem face on with their horn-rimmed mascot who continuously traveled across the globe dialing up whoever was unfortunate enough to be at the other end of that phone (talk about a thankless job) asking them, “Can you hear me now?”
Based on a real team of Verizon employees who each drove over 100,000 miles per year to test the reliability of the Verizon network, “Can you hear me now” was a familiar refrain for cell phone users back in 2002.
The campaign was so popular, not only did it become synonymous with Verizon, but even made its way into the pop culture stratosphere, making cameos in many Hollywood films.
In the first year of the campaign, Verizon’s net customers grew 10% to 32.5 million. By the second year, an additional 15% were added, growing their customer base to a whopping 37.5 million users! A very real result from the use of five simple words.
3. Where’s the beef? (Wendy’s 1984)
In the early 80’s, the chain restaurant Wendy’s was looking for a way to stand out amongst the increasingly competitive fast-food market of the day.
Some of the largest fast-food chains of the day loved to promote their hamburgers as large in size, donning them with names such as the Whopper or the Big Mac. Wendy’s, on the other hand, didn’t have a catchy name for their hamburgers that promoted their generous portions.
Instead of coming up with a clever name for their product to better compete with McDonalds or Burger King, they decided to put the competition’s products under the microscope and ask them a simple question, “Where’s the beef?”
Enter marketing executive Joe Sedelmaier who, with his creative team, looked to revolutionize the marketing world of the 1980’s.
In a decade full of advertisements of beautiful people doing beautiful things, Sedelmaier looked to put a comedic spin on promotional materials of the day and use less glamorous actors in less glamorous situations, once quoted saying, “… a commercial is something you watch when you sit down to watch something else – you should at least be entertained.” A humorous promotional tactic not as popular in the early 1980’s as it may be today.
It was with this idea in mind when the “Where’s the beef?” campaign was born.
The massive success of the advertisement was almost immediate as, with most households only having three television channels, everyone in America had seen – or at least was aware of — the promotion.
The lasting impact of the slogan soon made its way into the cultural arena, being referenced on late night television, in hit shows as The Simpsons, and even used in the 1984 presidential campaign by Democratic candidate Walter Mondale who used the phrase against opponent Gary Hart.
The campaign became so successful that it soon became a cultural phenomenon, making the actress Clara Peller into a cult celebrity.
Wendy’s didn’t’ fare too badly either… After the launch of the campaign, every Wendy’s restaurant generated at least 10% more sales in 1984 than they had done in the previous year and overall sales for the chain jumped by 31% to $945 million worldwide by 1985.
2. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? (Tootsie Roll 1969)
Since 1969, children across the globe have been asking each other one question… How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?
By 1969, television was a prominent staple of most American households, and, with that, Saturday morning cartoons were a vital component of the start of every child’s weekend.
Working to reach such a young audience, Tootsie Roll decided to market their Tootsie Pop product by asking a simple question of their viewers, just how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
This is, as far as this author is aware, the only ad campaign that has led to countless independent and actual scientific studies across the globe.
Everyone from the average child to some of the world’s top minds have actually done research to answer this question that has plagued us for over 50 years.
In 2015, a study published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, saw researchers from New York University and Florida State university develop a theory for how flowing liquid dissolves and shrinks material which they, naturally, then used to determine just how long it actually WOULD take to dissolve a Tootsie Pop.
The answer? Approximately 2,500 licks!
1. Got milk? (California Milk Processor Board 1993)
No ad campaign has accomplished so much with so few words…
In 1993, the California Milk Processor Board was looking to promote dairy consumption in a big way.
As such, they teamed up with one great marketing team to and came up with two simple words… “GOT MILK?”
This campaign was a HUGE success! There was hardly a magazine or billboard that did not have these two simple words pasted across it somewhere.
In addition to the simplicity of the question, the campaign also managed to attract some of the day’s top talents to pose for layout ads for the promotion. Including the likes of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Britney Spears, Shaq, Frankie Muniz, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and, as seen above, even Austin Powers himself, Mike Meyers!
The familiar, milk mustached, faces along with the simplicity of this campaign helped launch it into the stratosphere and it soon wasn’t long before everyone was asking, “Got milk?”
The Wrap Up
Well, there it is… Our list of the Top 10 Most Memorable Marketing Questions Ever Asked.
There have been many ad campaigns over the years, yet the ones listed above stick with us for their simplicity, creativity and – perhaps most importantly – their feelings of nostalgia.
A good marketing team knows that simplicity is key. If you can keep it simple while also grabbing ahold of your audience the way the above campaigns managed to do, you’re sure to have a bright future ahead in the competitive world of mass marketing.
Do you agree with our list? Did we leave one of your favorite promotions out? Let us know in the comments selection below!
P.S. If you’d like to begin working to put a memorable marketing question or slogan in place for your upcoming promotional campaign, then make sure to reach out to the team at Rain Digital.
Our combined years of experience and creative marketing knowledge are just what you need to make sure your next campaign is a success.
CLICK HERE to learn more about what Rain Digital can do for you today.
