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Specsavers has an advert the whole country runs for them, for free.
Should’ve gone to Specsavers.
You read that in their voice. Everyone does. It was written in-house in 2002 by their creative director, Graham Daldry, and it has been shouted at football referees ever since.
27 June 2010, England v Germany at the World Cup. Frank Lampard’s shot hit the bar, dropped over the line and bounced back out. No goal. England went out 4-1.
Two days later Specsavers was in The Sun, the Daily Star, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail. A pair of glasses and one line, goal-line technology from £25. Their marketing director said they had been amazed by how many people on social media were asking them to do exactly that. The creative team sat inside the business rather than at an agency, so the ad was approved in hours.
July 2020. The Speaker of the House of Commons told the Prime Minister he “may have to go to Specsavers” for facing the wrong way in the chamber. Specsavers paid nothing for that one.
Here is the part worth stealing.
The line never mentions glasses. No price, no frames, no eye test, nothing about the shop. It is a sentence about somebody else getting it wrong, and Specsavers is simply where it ends.
That is why it spreads. A line about you is only useful to you. A line people can aim at a mate, a referee or a Prime Minister is useful to them, so they carry it for you.
Most taglines are the first kind. Fast delivery, great quality, trusted since whenever. All true, and nobody has ever said one out loud in a pub.
The speed matters too. A reactive ad only works while the country is still arguing about the goal. An in-house team that can go from idea to four national papers in two days is part of why the line kept earning its keep, because every new moment of somebody getting it wrong was a fresh placement waiting to be claimed.
So here is the test for yours. A customer should be able to use it on someone who has never bought from you.
What does your customer already say about your category that has never made it into your ads?