Tagline

In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line^[1][2]) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, social group, or product. As a variant of a branding slogan, taglines can be used in marketing materials and advertising.

The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable dramatic phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of an audio/visual product,^{[lower-alpha 1]} or to reinforce and strengthen the audience's memory of a literary product. Some taglines are successful enough to warrant inclusion in popular culture. Consulting companies which specialize in creating taglines may be hired to create a tagline for a brand or product.

Nomenclature

Tagline, tag line, and tag are American terms. In the U.K. they are called end lines, endlines, or straplines. In Belgium they are called baselines. In France they are signatures. In Germany they are claims. In the Netherlands and Italy, they are pay offs or pay-off.^[3]

Organizational usage

Referral networking organizations may encourage taglines to be used as the conclusion to an introduction by each attendee. The purpose would be to make the introduction and that speaker more memorable in the minds of the other attendees after the meeting is over. Other terms for taglines are "memory hooks" (used by BNI®) and "USP" or "Unique Selling Proposition" which is a more commonly known term.^[4]

Headlines versus taglines

The tagline is sometimes confused with a headline because information is only presented with the one or the other. Essentially the headline is linked to the information; Once the information changes, the headline is abandoned in favor of a new one. The tagline is related to the entertainment piece and can, therefore, appear on all the information of that product or manufacturer. It is linked to the piece and not to the concept of a specific event. If the sentence is presented next to a logo, as an integral part, it is likely to be a tagline.

Functional taglines

A tagline is sometimes used as a supplementary expression in promoting a motion picture or television program.^{[lower-alpha 2]} It is an explanatory subtitle, in addition to the actual title, on posters or the CD/DVD packaging of videos and music. Taglines can have an enticing effect and are therefore an important aspect in the marketing of films and television programs. Increasingly also found in the advertising world, taglines are a form of advertising slogan.^{[lower-alpha 3]} A tagline for the movie series Star Wars, for example:

Tagline: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." – Star Wars^[5]

Effect: It was a long time ago in a far, far away galaxy ...

Examples of taglines

Film and television

• "Garbo talks!" – Anna Christie ^[6]
• "Garbo laughs!" – Ninotchka ^[7][8]
• "Be afraid. Be very afraid." – The Fly ^[9][10][11]
• "In space, no one can hear you scream." – Alien ^[12][13]
• "Freddy is just at the corner." – A Nightmare On Elm Street
• "Who you gonna call?." – Ghostbusters
• "There can be only one." – Highlander ^[14]
• "One ring to rule them all." – The Lord of the Rings ^[15]
• "Stanley Ipkiss is not the man he used to be." – The Mask
• "Love means never having to say you're sorry." – Love Story ^[16][17][18]
• "To boldly go where no man has gone before." – Star Trek ^[19]
• "The truth is out there." – The X-Files ^[20]
• "Why So Serious?" – The Dark Knight
• "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..." – Jaws 2
• "Nothing on earth could come between them." – Titanic
• "Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas." – Army of Darkness
• "Some houses are born bad." – The Haunting
• "It knows what scares you." – Poltergeist
• "You will believe." – Ghost
• "We are not alone." – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• "Gable's back and Garson's got him." – Adventure ^[21]
• "The first casualty of war is innocence." – Platoon
• "Some people change your life forever." – Carol ^[22]

Video games

• "Finish the Fight." – Halo 3^[23]
• "The gears of war are lubricated by the blood of soldiers" – Gears of War^[24]
• "One giant step on mankind" – Destroy All Humans!^[25]
• "Sinners welcome." – Saints Row^[26]
• "It's the Zombie Apocalypse. Bring friends." – Left 4 Dead^[27]
• "Some mountains are scaled. Others are slain." – Shadow of the Colossus^[28]
• "Prepare to Die" – Dark Souls
• "War. War never changes" – Fallout
• "Go To Hell" – Dante's Inferno^[29]
• "Revenge Solves Everything" – Dishonored

Novels

• "Power is a dangerous game." – Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
• "Their dark and troubled loves could flourish only in secret." – Women in the Shadows by Ann Bannon
• "A novel of love—lost and found." – Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway
• "Your next phone call could be your last." – Party Line by A. Bates
• "Growing up is tough. Period." – Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume
• "...the temperature at which books burn." – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• "She had six husbands, money—and one lover too many." The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
• "Afraid to face life she risked a terrible death." – Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie
• "A breath-taking novel about the future evolution of man." – Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke
• "For the dead, war never ends." – Gemini Cell by Myke Cole
• "There are two sides to every story." – Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• "A novel of an evil man...and a weak one...and their terrible bargain." – Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
• "A one-way ticket...to terror." – The Train by Diane Hoh
• "A hard-boiled mystery story, tougher than a ten-minute egg." – The Double Take by Roy Huggins
• "Would she learn the dead man's secret?" – The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
• "One day with Bonny Lee was like a three-year lease on a harem." – The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything by John D. MacDonald
• "One boy helps her remember. The other lets her forget." – The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
• "Death came along for the ride." – Road to Nowhere by Christopher Pike
• "Half Boy. Half God. All Hero." – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• "One choice can transform you." – Divergent by Veronica Roth
• "The shocking novel of the fight racket." – The Harder They Fall by Budd Schulberg
• "That's when he always kills them." – First Date by R. L. Stine
• "Change begins with a whisper." – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• "A savage novel of crime and lust in a big city hotel." – A Swell-Looking Babe by Jim Thompson

Etexts

Websites also often have taglines. The Usenet use taglines as short description of a newsgroup. The term is used in computing to represent aphorisms, maxims, graffiti or other slogans.

In electronic texts, a tag or tagline is short, concise sentences in a row that are used when sending e-mail instead of a electronic signature. The tagline is used in computing with the meaning of a "signature" to be affixed at the end of each message. In the late eighties and early nineties, when the amateur computer network FidoNet began to flourish, the messages that were exchanged between users often had a tag-line, which was no longer than 79 characters, containing a brief phrase (often witty or humorous).

See also

• Trope
• Byline
• Hook (music)
• Jingle
• Subliminal stimuli
• Subtext
• Subtitle
• Catchphrase

Notes

References

External links

• A List of Famous Taglines. taglinedb.com