A very British strapline

You'd never get that in America, would you?

It sets about the lowest bar of aspiration that a strapline possibly could. Future extensions presumably include We will drag ourselves into work today and We can be arsed to answer your phone call.

You can imagine the defence the client would put up. 'It's exactly right. We really do bother to help people, unlike all those other can't-be-bothered companies that the public hate.' On a rational level, that's entirely fair enough. But, subconsciously, lines like these plant the very negative thought that they are trying to dispel. 'Oh, that's great that you can be bothered. It actually hadn't occurred to me that you couldn't. That's quite a worrying thought, now I think about it.'

Being bothered is about the minimum you would expect from a business – a step or two beyond We will fit a front door on our office. More worryingly, you're implying that any customer phoning up for a quote is actually bothering you – it's just that you're OK with it.

Still, in a world where companies are forever delighting customers, striving for excellence and exceeding expectations, there's something quite heartwarming about a line like this. Like I say, only in Britain.

Comments

[John Fountain]

Though what you would get from America is "We try harder" which doesn't come with all the negative baggage and is a little more succinct perhaps.

[Nick Asbury]

At the risk of sweeping cultural generalisations, I think the Americans are just better at service culture than we are. They actually mean it when they say how are you, how can I help, have a nice day... whereas it's all a bit of a drag in Britain.

Our version of 'Just do it' would probably be 'Get it over with'.

[John Founatin]

Ok - based on your sweeping cultural gen - Americans straplines connect with their audience directly and our "every little helps" 'we shall be modest and restrained' approach does not?

[Nick Asbury]

Just been looking through some famous straplines over here http://www.adslogans.co.uk/hof/index.html and I think my sweeping generalisation probably doesn't stand up.

Some UK ones are modest and understated, but then we also came up with the World's Favourite Airline and The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange - not exactly masterpieces of understatement.

I still think 'we can be bothered' would never have made it past a US client, but then it's quite surprising it made it past a UK one.