Find new thinking

Uh, hello?
Anybody see something wrong here?

You have two different car companies trying to establish two different branding positions using two different taglines that, well, don't seem well...very different.

I'm not about to pass judgment on the work itself. Mostly, because I don't want to bite the hands that occasionally feeds me.

However I do find it interesting that Chevrolet, find new roads, Mitsubishi, find your own lane, stem from the same thought.

And I have a pretty good idea where that thought came from -- you.

Not you, my cynical, jaded industry colleagues who hate advertising one day and post Facebook pictures of the strawberry tart served at the Georgio Baldi wrap party the very next day.

I'm talking about the more general you, as in the larger public. The ones who 'volunteer' for a marketing focus group and gladly give up an evening at home for fifty bucks, a tuna sandwich and a bowl of previously-pawed M&M's.

You sit there with your laminated name tags, and your pleated khaki pants and your boring stories about boy scout camping trips. And then, given an opportunity to pontificate, you snatch up the role of Focus Group Captain and steer the discussion about how you'd like to discover the world. Or blaze new trails. Or travel the road less travelled. Or about a hundred other cliches that quickly get transcribed on index cards and pinned in a war room, passing for something the planners, with their masters and doctoral degrees, call "insight."

The sad truth is, banality like Find your own lane or Find new roads or (insert automotive tagline here) does not merit much discussion.

Taglines today have little bearing on car purchasing behavior. And they're even less effective when it comes to positioning a carmaker. Particularly when the taglines feel like they've been clipped from the back of a Tony Robbins Motivational Tape.

Activate your life.

Be one with the journey.

Feel the drive.

Let it move you.

Go everywhere.

I could do this all day.
Oh wait, I do do this all day.

Sad face.