Avis dumps decades-old ‘We Try Harder’ for ‘It’s Your Space’
Its new tagline has us scratching our heads. File this under the “What were they thinking” folder.
It isn’t often that we get a ringside seat to the dismantling of a venerable brand, but that’s what happened when Avis, the car rental company, announced that it scrapped its iconic “We Try Harder” slogan.
Did your jaw drop? Mine did.
After all, a slogan that conveys a deeply rooted corporate philosophy—motivating employees and promising benefits to consumers—is a rare and beautiful thing. Even rarer is one that’s almost universally recognized by consumers, and has been for half a century.
The appeal to consumers is obvious; the “We Try Harder” slogan has been listed as one of the “Top Ten Ad Campaigns of the 20th Century,” by CNBC. But maybe the people inside the company thought it was irrelevant. To find out, let’s look at this description of the slogan from Avis’s website.
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