Razor Branding Blog

Advertising Should be Unique, Right?

For quite some time now, Chili's has been running a campaign around "Get in.  Get out.  Get on with your life."

Okay.  Sounds good.

Then one of my co-workers, Aimee Voison, points out to me today, "it sure sounds similar to the tag for the new Ace Hardware campaign.

The new Ace Hardware tag, "Get in.  Get help.  Get on with your life".

I'm with Aimee.  They sure do sound like each other.

Which brings up a couple of questions.

1 - How did the Chili's tag get registered and the Ace tag get a service mark?  I'm not an attorney, even if I do occasionally act like one during disagreements with my husband.  It sure seems like those tags are nearly identical and even though they are for different industries they are too similar and would cause consumer confusion.

2 - Are there no new thoughts?  Is this the kind of thing where it was in the air and both agencies came up with it at the same time?  I just wonder how this happens.  Did the clients not notice that their taglines sound identical?  Were they okay with it?  I can't imagine how that meeting must have gone.

We spend a lot of time talking to clients about building their brand and strengthening the emotional connection with their consumers.  A very important aspect of the branding process is differentiation.

So how did this happen?