Our resident quote bleggar Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, is back with another request. If you have a bleg of your own, send it along here.
Well, now that I’ve alienated every lover of contemporary culture, it’s going to be a challenge to get back to the very popular “Name a memorable line of the 21st century” blegs.
It is clear that many readers of this blog believe that today’s film is better than ever before. I will just note that if you asked the contemporary directors themselves, they undoubtedly would not consider themselves to be qualitative peers of past directors such as Hitchcock, or even close to that.
Freakonomics blog readers seem more hesitant to affirm that today’s popular music is better than that of the past. I wonder, if I had asked for comparisons of current literature or visual arts with that of past centuries, whether I would have gotten the same kind of presentism people expressed about film. I’m not sure I want to see those answers!
Curiously for such an old fogey, my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, was regarded by reviewers as drenched in modern popular culture in comparison with stodgier volumes such as Bartlett’s.
Anyway, let’s try to get back on track. The Yale Book of Quotations includes 140 well known advertising slogans. I would welcome suggestions of famous advertising slogans from the 21st century (i.e., 2000 to 2008 or 2001 to 2008). I recognize that dating advertising slogans is tougher than dating films or songs, so I won’t be too unhappy about 20th-century suggestions.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
There was a Juicy Fruit (gum) commercial a few years back that remains suck in my head even now. It was a jingle that ended with something like “‘Cause sharing is caring and it can be~~~~ fun!” while a woman beat up some poor guy to get his gum even though she was supposed to be sharing. Probably not that famous, but it was a fun commercial.
5 dollar footlong. That subway ad was stuck in my head for a while.
The “Good buy, Hello” Target commercials were very catchy and interesting two Christmases ago, but at this point they grate on my last nerve.
The song never fails to get stuck in my head though.
Those Lennon/McCartney boys knew what they were doing.
1. What would you do for a klondike bar?
2. Once you pop, you can’t stop.(pringles)
3. Can you hear me now?
Dude.
“Can you hear me now?”
This incredibly annoying slogan is permanently seared into my brain and I hate seeing the character’s face on TV now, but on the other hand I do have a Verizon phone…
The redstripe beer commercials: “Its beer! Hooray Beer!”
HEAD-ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!
HEAD-ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!
HEAD-ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!