In 2000 the information technology company EDS ran a television ad called “Airplane.” A construction crew builds an airplane while it flies. One worker says: “Some people like to climb mountains. I like to build planes. In the air.” The text on the screen reads: “In a sense this is what we do. We build your digital business even while you’re up and running.”
The agency Fallon made the ad. The phrase “building the plane while flying it” is now a common business cliché for work that starts before the plan is finished.
“If You See Something, Say Something.” The New York advertising executive Allen Kay wrote the line on an index card the day after the attacks of September 11, 2001. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority began to use it in 2002.
In July 2010 the MTA gave the Department of Homeland Security a license to use the slogan. The national campaign asks people to be aware of suspicious activity and to know how to report it to law enforcement.
Federal Express began operating on April 17, 1973, with 186 packages for 25 American cities. Its best-known slogan made a promise: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” In its “Fast-Paced World” commercials, the actor John Moschitta Jr. played a businessman who talked at top speed.
In an advertising campaign around the end of 2009, Domino’s featured its customers’ complaints. One said the crust tasted like cardboard. The company publicly admitted past mistakes and introduced a new recipe, with a garlic-seasoned crust and a blend of mozzarella and provolone.
The company asked customers to try again. Patrick Doyle, who became CEO as the campaign began, knew the risk. “If people tried (the pizza) again and they had a bad experience, we’d be done.”
In a 1997 Nike commercial, Michael Jordan arrives at a stadium and walks to the locker room. His voice says: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
In 1997 Apple launched an advertising campaign called “Think different.” It began a few months after Steve Jobs returned to the company as interim CEO. The television commercial, narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, opened with these words: “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.”
It ended: “Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.” The agency was TBWA\Chiat\Day. The campaign went on to play a key role in Apple’s recovery.
Since the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, a candidate’s television and radio ads must include “a statement by the candidate that identifies the candidate and states that the candidate has approved the communication.” This is why almost every American campaign ad contains the sentence “I approve this message.” The rule is known as the “Stand By Your Ad” provision.
The goal was to discourage negative ads, because the candidate would have to own them personally. It did not work. Negative ads continued to grow, and some researchers found that the candidate’s statement made certain attack ads more persuasive.
Dahinter steckt immer ein kluger Kopf. There is always a clever head behind it. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has used this advertising slogan since 1961. Since 1995 its campaign has shown well-known people photographed behind the open newspaper. In 2010 one of them was Joachim Gauck.
The paper itself has had no editor-in-chief from the start. A board of publishers sets its line. In 2009 the board had five members. When the paper turned 60 that year, one of the publishers, Berthold Kohler, said it would celebrate quietly. Uns selbst zu feiern ist noch nie so recht unsere Art gewesen. Celebrating ourselves has never really been our way.
In summer 2011 the Bundeswehr started a large recruitment campaign. Its motto was Wir. Dienen. Deutschland. We. Serve. Germany. Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière had presented the slogan in an interview with the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
In March 2013 the Schwäbische Zeitung reported on a panel with de Maizière and Archbishop Robert Zollitsch. The paper wrote that the word dienen sounds old-fashioned and suggests servility. De Maizière gave his own definition. Dienen ist der Einsatz für andere. To serve is to commit oneself for others.
The word is also part of the oath in Section 9 of the Soldiers Act. Ich schwöre, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland treu zu dienen und das Recht und die Freiheit des deutschen Volkes tapfer zu verteidigen, so wahr mir Gott helfe. I swear to serve the Federal Republic of Germany faithfully and to defend bravely the rights and the freedom of the German people, so help me God. The religious ending is optional.
On its 66th anniversary in November 2021, the Bundeswehr published a video under the same motto.
Since 2017 the U.S. Travel Association has promoted National Plan for Vacation Day on the last Tuesday in January. It encourages Americans to plan the vacation days they already have. In 2021 American workers earned an average of 15.6 days of paid time off and used 11.0.