Slogan examples.
A slogan, or tagline, is the line a brand says again and again: on the pack, at the end of the ad, and in people’s mouths. A good one stands on one fact only your brand can claim, so a rival couldn’t sign it.
Use it once the campaign idea is chosen and still needs its line.
Nutcracker’s pick
Keep a straight face.
The only line the name lives inside whole, and the only one about something bigger than beer: refusing to justify yourself.



One beer, 38 lines.
Lines for Straight Face, a sample 0.0% lager, from one brief in Nutcracker: four AIs from four labs, each writing its own set with the same method. Each note says how its line works.
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
The first set, from the plain request “Write slogans for Straight Face.”
Keep a straight face.
An idiom people already say, doing the brand’s job. It’s the only line the name can sit inside whole.
It’s a beer.
The plainest claim you can make, over the least plain pack. The picture argues; the line refuses to.
Funny how nobody asks about the third one.
The insight said the way a person says it, with the second half left to the reader.
0.0, not 0.5.
The number as a knife. It separates them from every beer allowed to call itself non-alcoholic at half a percent.
All we take out is the alcohol.
The method as the proof. This is the one nearest the beige: it names the absence like they all do, and only the cold-removal process keeps it from being a product footnote.
Make mine a zero.
The bar order with the number swapped in.
Why a zero?
The question itself on the poster; the can’s face is the answer.
Order it in front of people.
Names the hiding and flips it, without scolding anyone.
I’m on the zeros tonight.
A real sentence at a bar. The zero becomes your round.
For when you want one.
The category’s “for when you can’t”, turned around.
Nothing to prove.
The pride job. Neither the beer nor the person is justifying anything.
Everyone asks. Nobody asks twice.
The question dies on the first taste.
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Same brief, same method, none of the first twelve to lean on.
Say less.
The tagline that can run for years. It is how the brand talks, turned into an order. Friends say it to each other, and it reads as both “keep it short” and “got it.” It fits a can, a bar, a post or a spot.
Hold your own.
The pride job in three words. In a room full of looks, it means stand your ground. Here it is also literal: the can is in your hand. It says nothing about alcohol.
Not impressed.
Only works with the can in shot. The giant 0.0 and its flat line read as a face, and this is what that face says to anyone who asks. Print it under the can alone, with nothing else on the poster.
Saturday is a separate matter.
The dry one. Our buyer drinks on other nights, and the line says so like a diplomat closing a topic. It has no apology and no quitting, so nobody is shamed.
Put one in the fridge before they ask.
The warm one. A host answers the question before it exists. The guest walks in and finds it already cold, waiting.
Rested six weeks. Calmest thing in the room.
The funny one, built on a real fact: six weeks of rest. The beer is the calm one at the table, which also describes the voice of the whole brand.
Loudest night of the year. Quietest can in the room.
The big one, for game week. The stadium is all noise, and the can is a giant zero with a flat mouth. It sets the spot and the cans side by side without saying why.
Alcohol: 0.0%. Remarks: none.
The cold one. It is the voice of a form being filled in. The mandatory number is in the line, and the second half refuses to add a word.
Look for the big zero.
The plain one, for the shelf and the cold case. In 3,000 stores the pack is the signpost, and the line says “zero” out loud without lowering its voice.
Gemini 4 Argon
Its own set, given everything already on the table.
No glass, thanks.
Three words a drinker actually says to the bartender. In this category, pouring a can into a pint glass is how you disguise it as draft beer so nobody asks. Refusing the glass puts the giant 0.0 straight on the bar.
You’re not on antibiotics.
Retires the most worn-out fake excuse in the room by naming it flatly. Anyone who has dodged the question at a wedding or work dinner recognizes the lie in a beat, and the can replaces the story.
Most zeros hide in the fine print.
Goes after competitor packaging without naming a rival. Other brands tuck “non-alcoholic” along the bottom rim so the can passes from across the room; Straight Face makes the 0.0 the whole front of the can.
Pull the alcohol out cold and the bite stays.
States the brewing truth like a shop rule. Most zero beers taste flat because heat cooks the character out with the alcohol; cold extraction is why six weeks of full-strength brewing survives in the can.
Nothing early tomorrow.
Strips away the 7am-meeting alibi. People assume a zero means an alarm clock, a marathon, or a set of car keys; three words say you are only drinking it because you want one tonight.
Move your thumb.
Built for a poster where a hand grips the can. People wrap their fingers over a non-alcoholic label in photos and at bars to cover what they are holding. With a giant 0.0 across the face, there is nowhere to hide it anyway.
11:30 PM. 0.0%.
Puts the beer in the bar at night where the category never goes. Other brands shoot sunny trail runs and daytime barbecues; a late-night timestamp and the mandatory number say our drinker is still out and still sharp.
Still buying the next round.
Keeps our drinker inside the group without preaching at friends who drink. Ordering a zero does not take you out of the bar ritual or off the tab.
It doesn’t blink either.
Pack-adjacent copy for a close-up of the can. The two zeros and flat mouth aren’t smug and don’t judge the room; they just hold the stare the same way the drinker does after saying “Good question.”
GPT-6 Astra
Its own set, at the size of a 40-person company.
Best served without a panel discussion.
A serving suggestion aimed at the interrogation, not the drinker.
What’s it called?
The next question is about the beer. The Straight Face wordmark supplies the answer.
Alcohol was involved.
Over the finished 0.0% can. A plain admission about its full-strength start.
Opening statement.
A freshly opened can on the bar. The ring pull does the talking.
From all 40 of us.
Beside the can and wordmark. The whole company signs off, small enough to mean it personally.
Personal news: lager.
A social post built like an announcement, with only the can to announce.
This round isn’t a referendum.
Over an order slip that includes Straight Face. Nobody else needs to vote on it.
You were saying?
Two friends at a bar, the zero plainly visible. The drinker hands the conversation back.
Twelve ways in.
Write dozens across at least four ways, then cut. The famous lines show each way at work; the Straight Face lines show it on one brief.
A line people say
Write what someone says out loud in a real moment: an order, a retort, a question. A line people can say travels without the ad.
Got milk?
California Milk Processor Board, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, 1993
Should’ve gone to Specsavers.
Specsavers
- No glass, thanks.
- Make mine a zero.
- You were saying?
The brand as grammar
Make the name part of a sentence people already use, so saying the sentence says the brand. Never a pun on top.
It’s a Tide ad.
Tide, Super Bowl 2018
Intel Inside.
Intel, 1991
- Keep a straight face.
The gap the reader closes
Stop one step early and let the reader finish. The thought feels like their own.
“I never read The Economist.” Management trainee. Aged 42.
The Economist, AMV
- Funny how nobody asks about the third one.
- Why a zero?
Confession
Admit what a brand would hide. The admission is the reason to believe the rest.
We try harder.
Avis, DDB, 1962
Probably the best lager in the world.
Carlsberg, 1973
- Alcohol was involved.
Exact detail
One exact number or fact instead of an adjective. It lands against something the reader already knows.
1,000 songs in your pocket.
Apple iPod, 2001
- 0.0, not 0.5.
- 11:30 PM. 0.0%.
Reversal
Say the opposite of what the category always says, or come at the benefit from its far side.
Think small.
Volkswagen, DDB, 1959
Don’t buy this jacket.
Patagonia, 2011
- For when you want one.
Register clash
Say it in a voice the category never uses: a form, an announcement, a vote.
Murder your thirst.
Liquid Death
Imported from Detroit.
Chrysler, Wieden+Kennedy, 2011
- Alcohol: 0.0%. Remarks: none.
- Personal news: lager.
- This round isn’t a referendum.
Understatement
Claim less than you could. The reader fills in the rest, and believes it more.
A little help with the little things.
Google, Super Bowl 2020
- It’s a beer.
- Say less.
One word bent
Take a phrase everyone knows and change one word, usually the verb. The reader repairs it, and the repair persuades.
Great minds like a think.
The Economist, AMV
Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.
Heineken, Collett Dickenson Pearce, 1974
- Best served without a panel discussion.
- Opening statement.
A word said twice
Use one word twice, so the second time it means something else.
The man your man could smell like.
Old Spice, Wieden+Kennedy, 2010
- Everyone asks. Nobody asks twice.
Rallying cry
An order or a creed people can give themselves.
Just do it.
Nike, Wieden+Kennedy, 1988
- Order it in front of people.
- Hold your own.
- Move your thumb.
Worth
Promise the reader’s worth, plainly. The product becomes proof of it.
Because I’m worth it.
L’Oréal, McCann, 1971
A diamond is forever.
De Beers, N.W. Ayer, 1947
- Nothing to prove.
Slogan, tagline, headline
A slogan and a tagline are the same job: the line a brand says again and again, at the end of every ad. A headline lives on one poster or one page. Some lines win awards and need their poster to work (“Lemon.” over a perfect car). Others travel without it, said by one person to another (“Should’ve gone to Specsavers.”). A good set has both.
Say it out loud.
Could one person say it to another, in a real moment? A slogan nobody can say is a sign, not a line people repeat.
Three more before you show anyone
Swap the logo
Put a competitor’s name under it. If they would sign it, it’s the category talking.
Leave the last step
The reader closes the gap. If you explained the joke, cut the explanation.
Line and picture
On a poster, the line adds what the picture can’t show. A line that describes the picture wastes the wall.
Cross these out.
All the taste. None of the alcohol.It’s a beer.
For when you can’t.For when you want one.
Built for your tomorrow.Nothing early tomorrow.
Never sit a round out again.Still buying the next round.
Zero alcohol. Zero regrets.Alcohol: 0.0%. Remarks: none.
Run it on your brand.
Give Nutcracker the idea and the brand. It writes dozens of lines across a dozen ways in, cuts them on these tests and shows you the few that survive. Ask another AI for its own set on the same brief. 7 days free, no card.
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