Time Essay: Slogan Power! Slogan Power!

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The lusty cry that roused the Highlanders of ancient Scotland for battle was called a sluagh-gairm. A combination of the Gaelic words for host and cry, this rallying shout became slogorne in English and was over generations altered into sluggorne, slughorn, slogurn and other variants, including slogen. From that came the modern word that embraces those catch phrases, mottoes, aphorisms and partisan whoops that are continually coined and used by every segment of society, from politicians to Boy Scouts to terrorists. Slogans are, in fact, as common as chitchat.

The birth of the slogan itself, with whatever name, goes back to the start of history; as far back as human records occur, so do slogans. On the basis of its power alone, its potential capacity to unite people and move them toward either belligerent or peaceful goals, the slogan rates as one of man's most ingenious and economical verbal inventions. So the ubiquity of slogans in modern times is understandable, and it probably does more good than harm. Still, there is reason to wonder whether the use—and abuse—of slogans has not at last resulted in a period of fatigue, a sort of slump that might be called sloganosis.

Nothing has raised the question more forcefully than President Carter's embarrassing effort in his State of the Union speech to establish his Administration's slogan. Although his staff has had two years to mull over the matter, what they came up with was something called New Foundation. It foundered. Some people yawned; others were derisive. Mainly, everyone was magnificently uninspired. New Foundation just did not have the ring of the great slogans of yesteryear: New Deal, Fair Deal, New Frontier, Great Society. Still, the Carter dud was only a conspicuous example of the general anemia that has beset sloganeering in recent years. Some believe, for example, that the commercial practice of the art has fallen into something of a slump partially because advertising now gives so much attention to research-based claims that it has somewhat neglected the old standby.

For all that, sloganeering is far from going out of style. The slogan is, after all, probably the best people mover this side of earthquakes, court orders and guns. A first-rate slogan is potent indeed when properly contrived. It becomes as easy to remember as it is hard to forget. It plants itself in the consciousness by rhythm, rhyme, pith or brevity. Once there, it works not only by whatever imagery it carries but—more—by the latent emotions it mobilizes. It plays too on the verities and prejudices of its audience, balming or inflaming them according to purpose. Just so, the slogan lurks as a sort of floating hook in the psyche. Properly tugged, it can impel people to coalesce, to divide, to fight, to sacrifice, to vote, to buy.