Even with the onset of streaming, many advertising executives would argue there’s still no better way to sell a product than through a widely seen TV commercial. It’s why spots at the Super Bowl still go for millions of dollars. There’s something about watching a live television commercial that works. The best ones have a way of sticking with you, sometimes even decades after you first saw them.
That’s what this list celebrates. We might all groan when commercial breaks are too long, but most of us also have a begrudging admiration for the best of the best. We mindlessly hum the catchiest jingles and chuckle to ourselves about the funniest commercials. Deep down, we respect a well put together sell and a great catchphrase. So, let’s look back on the best ones. These are the catchphrases everyone still remembers.
Like A Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There - State Farm
State Farm occasionally gets away from the iconic jingle, but the insurance giant always seems to come back, probably because it’s one of the best and most memorable advertising slogans in history. Written by a young Barry Manilow, who later went on to pop stardom, it just rolls right off the tongue and has been featured in numerous commercials, including one series in which singing the theme song conjures a State Farm employee who can help solve whatever problem they’re dealing with.
Be Like Mike - Gatorade
Gatorade’s beloved Be Like Mike commercial would have slapped no matter what when it was released, but the original timing was especially perfect. It dropped less than two months after Michael Jordan won his first NBA Championship, and it's easy to understand why the catchphrase immediately entered the pop culture lexicon. You might not be able to play like Mike, but you can certainly drink the same thing as him and also, sing this beloved jingle.
Just Do It - Nike
Arguably the greatest advertising slogan ever, Nike’s Just Do It has been regularly appearing in commercials since it first rolled out in the late '80s. In multiple languages, featuring numerous sports, hundreds of athletes and even a variety of tones, the commercials themselves are always different, but the ending always remains the same. Just Do It.
I'm Lovin' It - McDonalds
The best thing about McDonalds’ I’m Lovin' It catchphrase is that it’s accompanied by that distinctive noise. That means the fast food burger giant has the option to do the bada-bah-bah-bah along with actually saying it or just have the sound at the end of the commercial; either way, everyone knows what's being referred to. It’s the best of both worlds and a testament to just how ingrained in pop culture the catchphrase is.
Get Allstate And Be Better Protected From Mayhem - All State
The structure of these hilarious commercials starring Dean Winters, a.k.a. 30 Rock’s Beeper King Dennis Duffy, is always the same. He looks into the camera and says “I’m a ______” and proceeds to act exactly like that type of person/animal/object/weather phenomenon, causing all kinds of carnage in the process. It’s a fantastic formula that has seen him portray everything from a cat to a teen girl to a parking gate to a beauty influencer. Now, as soon as he pops up on the screen, everyone knows weird and funny mayhem is about to ensue.
Bud-Weis-Er - Budweiser
I would have loved to be in the room when this was pitched. In one of those so-simple-it’s-extraordinarily-complex kind of things, Budweiser rolled out a mid-'90s Super Bowl commercial that featured three frogs sitting in a swamp. One says “bud.” One says “weis.” One says “er,” sometimes in the right order and sometimes not so much. It’s literally thirty seconds of that, and it’s still remembered as arguably the most famous Super Bowl commercial in history.
How Many Licks - Tootsie Pop
Tootsie Pop dropped the first How Many Licks commercial all the way back in 1969, and it was so iconic that more than thirty years later, Lil' Kim referenced it in the title of a charting single. The premise of the original is simple. A little boy asks a series of animals how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. No one is quite sure, mostly because everyone bites into the center before licking their way there. This one still plays and slays on TV.
Real Men Of Genius - Bud Light
If you crank out more than two hundred commercials around a single concept or spend more than $30 million dollars a year on quick hit radio spots all with the same theme, you know you’ve stumbled onto something genius. Bud Light did both in the late '90s with its Real Men Of Genius spots. Each one features the lead singer of Survivor celebrating under-appreciated men such as bad toupee wearers and wrestling costume designers. At one point, they got so popular that Anheuser-Busch released the best ones on CD and put together a stand-up tour.
Betcha Can’t Eat Just One - Lay’s
If you want to know how long Lay’s has been crushing with its Betcha Can’t Eat Just One slogan, here’s a fun fact. The catchphrase was made popular in a series of commercials and print ads featuring Bert Lahr, who played The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard Of Oz and was born in the 1800s. His funny bits, often featuring elaborate disguises, were a huge hit in the 1960s, but updated versions have also connected with new generations.
Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop - Pringles
Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop was rolled out by Pringles in the mid '90s in a series of commercials that exploded with mid-90s energy. From vibrant colors to rollerblading to weird dancing, they had everything you’d expect from that era. More importantly, the catchphrase stuck, helped in part by the distinctive cylindrical tube the chips came in that felt so different from other snack options and really helped sell the whole experience.
He Likes It, Hey Mikey! - Life Cereal
Most of the commercial catchphrases on this list have been repeated in subsequent ads. Once people liked the first one, they shot a ton of subsequent versions featuring the same premise but different specifics to keep them fresh. Not this one, or at least not for awhile. The OG featured a hard to please little boy named Mikey whose older brothers make him try a new cereal that seems too healthy. To their shock, he enjoys it, leading one of them to shout “He likes it! Hey Mikey!” The ad was so popular it ran for twelve years and an update wasn’t shot until the original actor was in college.
This Bud’s For You - Budweiser
Budweiser and its army of products have cranked out tons of commercials and tons of catchphrases over the years. Quite a few are even on this list, but there’s nothing as simplistically perfect as the catchphrase This Bud’s For You. Whether it’s literally said out loud, just appears in text, or comes in the form of a catchy song, it’s clean, simple and immediately identifiable with the King Of Beers.
Not Happy, Jan - Australian Yellow Pages
The United States isn’t the only country where advertising catchphrases enter the cultural lexicon. In 2000, the Yellow Pages in Australia rolled out a commercial in which a business manager asks one of her employees (Jan) where the ad she was supposed to place in the yellow pages is. Rather than confess she didn’t do it, Jan simply runs away, leading the boss to shout “Not Happy, Jan!” There’s something about her vocal inflection that’s just perfect, and to this day, “Not Happy, Jan” is still used in Australia.
I Don’t Always Drink Beer, But When I Do, I Prefer Dos Equis - Dos Equis
Dos Equis struck liquid gold in the mid 2000s with a series of commercials featuring The Most Interesting Man In The World. Each one featured character actor Jonathan Goldsmith participating in a series of wild adventures, narrated by Will Lyman. At the end, he would say, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.” They were always funny and almost felt like they were casually endorsing the product in an off-handed way, which made it feel really cool. The commercials ran for more than a decade.
Where’s The Beef? - Wendy’s
You know an advertising slogan has really made it when people start using it outside the context of the original ad. That’s what happened to "Where’s The Beef?" in the 1980s when it became a euphemism for anything that lacked substance or didn’t fulfill its promise. Given its almost immediate overexposure, Wendy’s went in another direction with its advertising within just a few years, but not before it filmed a bunch of fun commercials, sold a ton of merchandise and helped convince Americans that its burger, which it modestly called a single, was bigger and beefier than the competitors.
You’re Not You When You’re Hungry - Snickers
The best commercials are often funny but also have a central marketing message you can relate to, and these Snickers commercials checked both those boxes. In them, someone doing an everyday activity would be replaced by someone else, typically a celebrity, and they’d behave exactly as that celebrity would, even if it didn’t fit the context. So, for example, someone playing football would be replaced by Betty White and get criticized for moving like an elderly woman. Eventually, they’d bite into a Snickers and turn back into themselves because, as everyone can relate to, you’re not you when you’re hungry.
Taste The Rainbow - Skittles
Most of the commercials and their catchphrases on this list are going for humor or seeking to be relatable. Not these Skittles commercials. Featuring the catchphrase “Taste The Rainbow,” they try to be as weird as possible, depicting bizarre visuals like milking a giraffe or weird premises like transplants gone wrong. Sometimes they even pivot the catchphrase slightly to things like “harvest the rainbow” or “mob the rainbow” but always, the basic tone is the same. They’re creepy and memorable and unforgettably tied to Skittles.
Easy, Breezy, Beautiful. CoverGirl - CoverGirl
CoverGirl has tried other marketing approaches and catchphrases over the years, but none have ever approached the iconic popularity of Easy, Breezy, Beautiful. CoverGirl. Some of the most popular followed the same formula and featured celebrities, styled in a bunch of different ways. They always looked like they were having the most fun, and they always ended with shots, often separated by quick cuts, that included them saying "Easy, Breezy, Beautiful. CoverGirl."
Maybe She’s Born With It, Maybe It’s Maybelline - Maybelline
It’s not often an advertiser wants to inject so much doubt into their commercials, but that’s the entire idea behind Maybelline. Each time, we’re shown a woman, sometimes a celebrity and sometimes a random model, using make-up but it’s always subtle and blends so well that other people might not know she’s using it. The commercials always end with the iconic tagline, but often times it’s accompanied by music and expressed in very different styles and tones, depending on the mood the ad is trying to strike.
The Quicker Picker Upper - Bounty
You know what’s an advertiser’s dream? Finding a short catchphrase that rolls off the tongue and simultaneously describes what the product is and what it does. That’s the dream scenario Bounty is in, as The Quicker Picker Upper is a perfect encapsulation of the product. That’s why the company has been rolling it out for decades in a variety of commercials, and it would be a shock if it ever went away from it.
Call JG Wentworth, 877-CASH-NOW - JG Wentworth
As a company, JG Wentworth has had a lot more struggles than most of those on the list. There have been multiple bankruptcies and various other problems, but decades later, people of a certain age have a very distinct recollection of their trademark commercials and the really on-the-nose catchphrase that went with each. More often than not, they featured opera singers telling the audience if they had a structured settlement and need cash now, they should "Call JG Wentworth, 877-Cash-Now." Something about the cadence of the words just worked, and it remains an earworm all these years later.
Take The Simon Challenge - Simon
I have very nostalgic memories for the Simon commercials, which often repeated the name of the game an awkward number of times, almost in the style of a back-up singer. Most famously, the structure used Take The Simon Challenge (SIMON) to the point where if said “take the Simon challenge” to most people who were kids in the '90s, they’d probably shout SIMON. Now that’s an effective advertisement.
A Diamond Is Forever - De Beers
Commonly sighted as the best advertising slogan of all-time, as well as the likely source of an inspiration for a James Bond movie, the ads, which started in print and radio, had a dramatic effect on how people viewed diamonds. They wedded the idea of a diamond with the idea of romance, and they helped turn diamond engagement rings into an expectation. The catchphrase has been seen in numerous commercials since, often accompanied simply by music and pleasing visuals.
A December To Remember - Lexus
There are plenty of books, albums and other advertisements that have used December To Remember over the years, but thanks to some super memorable commercials and giant bows, Lexus has swooped in and taken the catchphrase. The spots are simple in concept and typically feature someone being gifted a Lexus on Christmas morning and having an extremely touching reaction. Given the price tag, the ads clearly aren’t geared toward the middle class, but they work in both an aspirational way on most and seemingly a very direct way on the type of people who can afford to buy a Lexus for Christmas.
Have It Your Way - Burger King
Burger King has churned out a lot of ads focusing on the sheer size of the Whooper, but it’s their Have It Your Way catchphrase that’s really stuck in the minds of most. For awhile, the company used a song that featured the slogan, but in more recent years, it’s been used as more of a tagline at the end because its message has become so ingrained that it doesn’t need to be expressed as loudly. For real, have you ever met a single person over the age of six that doesn’t know fast food places let you customize the ingredients? A substantial reason for that is Burger King and its successful catchphrase.
It’s Finger-Lickin’ Good - KFC
I’m a loud and proud anti-finger-lickin’ person. I was raised to use a napkin and a fork, but even I have to admit this catchphrase is fantastic. It perfectly conveys the idea of chicken so delicious you can’t control yourself, and it obviously works with consumers, given KFC has been using it in almost every single ad it has cranked out for decades, whether they feature the real Colonel Sanders, celebrity impersonator Colonels or other countries paying homage to the Colonel.
Two All-Beef Patties, Special Sauce, Lettuce, Cheese, Pickles, Onions And A Sesame Seed Bun - McDonald’s
I’m not normally a fan of catchphrases that are this long. In fact, it’s easily the longest on this entire list, but every rule is meant to be broken and every Big Mac is meant to be eaten. There’s just something about it that works. I don’t know how long the advertising agency played with what order to say the products in, but they found the exact right one, and the OG jingle just adds a perfect little sesame seed on top. Even decades later, it’s hard to find anyone of a certain age that couldn’t immediately tell you every ingredient in the Big Mac.
Don’t Leave Home Without It - American Express
Historically, American Express had pushed two different concepts in its advertising. First, it has pushed exclusivity with the line Membership Has Its Perks. I could have easily chosen to highlight that here, but instead, I’m going with Don’t Leave Home Without It, as I think that’s more closely tied to American Express. So many of its commercials, many that included celebrities, featured the person talking about what they needed the card for and then ending the bit with the iconic line, Don’t Leave Home Without It.
Because You’re Worth It - L’Oreal
The iconic catchphrase for L’Oreal was conceived as a pushback to most beauty advertisements at the time which were narrated by men. L’Oreal wanted to portray a woman making her own decisions and doing what was right for her hair. The commercials were an immediate hit, and the company has produced countless commercials and ads over the years using some version of the slogan.
5-Dollar Footlong - Subway
This is how popular the 5-dollar footlong commercials were. More than a decade after the promotion ended, if you search Subway Footlong, one of the related questions still asks if they cost 5 dollars. That’s a testament to how catchy the song was and how completely the message resonated with its target audience. I was in college when the campaign first launched, and I had friends who would just say, “5 Dollar Footlong” in answering what restaurant to get dinner from.
Melts In Your Mouth, Not In Your Hands - M&Ms
I appreciate the M&Ms’ catchphrase because it’s almost an insult to other chocolate bars. It doesn’t directly reference them, but by merely pointing out where the chocolate melts, it’s implying other candy bars don’t offer that perk. Decades later, it’s still a selling point, which is why so many of the iconic candy brand’s commercials rolled with the slogan for so long, even adapting it to foreign country's like Finland's Melts In Your Mouth, Not In A Sauna.
Think Outside The Bun - Taco Bell
Taco Bell is good with slogans and catchphrases. For awhile, it ended its commercials with the phrase Open Late, which is exactly the type of information someone going to Taco Bell needs to know. Now, it rolls with Live Más, which feels uplifting but also makes me want Mexican food. For my burrito, though, the best of the bunch was Think Outside The Bun. What a classy and succinct way of telling people not to order cheeseburgers tonight without coming off as bossy. Brilliant.
As you can see, all of these slogans will likely stick in the pop culture consciousness for many more decades to come.
