The Kellogg firm obtained an injunction against this advertising on the ground of unfair competition, in that the defendant was misappropriating the good-will created by the Kellogg Company's advertising.
The widely advertised phrase used in the Pompeian Massage Cream advertisements, "Don't envy a good complexion; use Pompeian and have one", is the result of a prize contest, in which many thousands of people tried their skill at making phrases.
The Corticelli kitten, the advertising symbol of the Nonotuck Silk Co.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, in advertising its New York to Philadelphia service, uses a phrase that is a complete advertisement of its train service in six words. Trains leave New York for Philadelphia every hour, leaving at ten o'clock, eleven o'clock, at noon, and so on. Every train leaves exactly on the hour.
The road formerly used the phrase: "Trains every hour on the hour", and this seemed to be pretty good, but it was thought that something better might be devised. A great deal of thought was given to the subject, and as a result the phrase "Your Watch Is Your Time Table" was devised. This phrase tells the whole story. It is no longer necessary to bother with time-tables when one goes from New York to Philadelphia. Just look at your watch. To visualize this idea, the phrase is used in the advertising in connection with the pictures of a fast train and a watch.
A celebrated advertising phrase was "You press the button; we do the rest", formerly used by the Eastman Kodak Company. This sentence achieved a tremendous popularity, but it had the fundamental defect of not containing any word which would connect it closely with the Eastman Company's product. There is hardly a doubt that it was heard and used by a vast number of people who did not receive any Kodak-buying suggestion from it.
A short, incisive phrase which does not possess this defect is "O'Sullivanize Your Walk", used in the advertising of O'Sullivan's Rubber Heels. When you have a pair of O'Sullivan's Heels put on your shoes you do not merely invest in a comfort-giving device. It is a bigger transaction than that. You begin to walk like a man who means business—you have the erect and confident bearing of success—in short, you "O'Sullivanize Your Walk".