Speaking at ADWEEK’s Commerceweek summit in February, PepsiCo svp of beverages for North America Stacy Taffet explained that the beverage and its slogan were “very much rooted in Gen Z culture.”
In other words, if you want young consumers, it can’t hurt to sound like them.
Papa Johns didn’t roll out “Better Get You Some” on its own. Franchisees recently voted to up their contributions to the chain’s National Marketing Fund to “improve audience selection” and “create cultural buzz,” according to a statement. Following an agency review, headquarters signed The Martin Agency in December to help it “cut through the ‘sea of sameness’” in the category.
The new tagline appears as part of a minute-long ad that features lots of quick-cut video about melted cheese and a backing track by rapper Big Boi.
For veteran marketing consultant Gary Stibel, managing partner of the New England Consulting Group, the tactic is logical—at least to a point. “They’re after a younger demographic,” he said. “Big Boi is popular among the younger demographic. The music is enjoyable. It’s fun to watch.”
What gives Stibel pause is the grafting of this new slogan onto the old one.
“It doesn’t make sense because simplicity is one of the key ingredients to effective communication, and the more complicated it gets, the more difficult it is for the viewer,” he said.
Charles Byers, who teaches marketing at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, had a similar appraisal. While a grammatical foible doesn’t “necessarily make any tagline bad,” a tagline as an appendage is a different story.
“They’re creating clutter rather than clarity,” he said. “A strong, creative tagline—and ‘Better Ingredients. Better Pizza’ is a great tagline—can, and should, stand alone.”
