I'm gnawing my way through excruciatingly witty ad copy today. To get through some of the bumpier spots, I've been checking out the U.S. competitors. Suddenly, I realized a big difference between U.S. and German slogans that had always bothered me on a subconscious level.
All-American slogan: "Satisfying customers for 30 years!"
Typisch deutscher Werbespruch: "Mit Erfolg seit 30 Jahren!"*
Is it just me, or do German companies come off sounding like jerks?
*"Successful for 30 years!"
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2 comments:
My impression is that US firms are more focused on clients while Germans tend to overemphasize what *they* can do. You can see this behaviour in other areas of life, but in marketing this happens to be more obvious.
A famous translatologist once said, off the record, that factories and the factory lifestyle are an integral part of the German cultural landscape. As a result, there is a widespread perception that the service industry is a servile industry.
That doesn't apply as much as it probably used to, of course. But it's an interesting way of looking at the problem.
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