A slogan has one job: to be repeated by someone who was not paid to repeat it. Everything else — cleverness, alliteration, the approval of the campaign committee — is decoration.
The translation problem
Most campaign slogans in India are conceived in English, usually in a room where English is the working language, and then translated into the language the campaign is actually fought in. The translation is typically accurate and completely inert.
Accuracy is not the goal. Rhythm, register and repeatability are the goals, and none of them survive translation. A line that scans beautifully in English frequently lands in Tamil or Hindi as something a person would never say aloud.
Three tests before you print
1. The recall test
Say the line once to a person who has never heard it. Talk about something else for two minutes. Ask them to repeat it. If they cannot, no amount of hoarding budget will fix it — you are paying to display something people cannot retain.
2. The parody test
Give the line to three people and ask them to make it hostile. If it inverts easily — if changing one word turns it into an attack on your candidate — your opponent will find that inversion within a day and it will outlive your original.
3. The origination test
Ask whether the line was written in the language it will be spoken in. If it was translated, throw it away and commission origination. This is the single highest-return change most campaigns can make to their creative process.
What good looks like
- Short enough to be said in one breath.
- Built from words in ordinary daily use, not political vocabulary.
- Makes one claim, not three.
- Survives being said by someone who dislikes the candidate.
- Works when shouted, printed small, and read on a phone screen.
Testing costs a fraction of a single hoarding. Campaigns skip it because the slogan has usually been chosen by the time anyone thinks of testing, and nobody wants to tell the person who chose it.