The Promo Playbook by Cubic Promote

From “I’m Loving It” To “I Have A Dream”: The Power Of One-Liners

• charles-au

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 A few words can tilt a purchase, stir a memory, or ignite a movement—and we wanted to know why. We dive into the craft of one-liners: the ad jingles that refuse to leave your head, the taglines that steer split-second decisions, and the cultural phrases that carry real emotional weight. With Jasmine, our financial controller, we trade favorite lines, test each other with a rapid-fire slogan game, and dissect what makes certain messages stick while others fall flat.

We explore how melody supercharges recall, why “Because you’re worth it” can sway a cosmetics choice, and how rhythmic repetition turns “I have a dream” into living language. Then we pull back the curtain on the risks of going global with a neat English phrase. From Pepsi’s infamous “come alive” misread to KFC’s “eat your fingers,” we map the traps of direct translation, idiom, and phonetics across Chinese and Spanish-speaking markets. The takeaway: language is an interface, and context is everything.

Along the way, we share practical guardrails for marketers and procurement teams working across regions: write for meaning before cleverness, test sound as well as sense, back-translate, and pressure-test with native speakers. We also explain how our team’s cultural and linguistic mix functions as an early-warning system, catching double meanings and tonal slips before they become costly recalls. If you build brands, you’ll leave with a sharper eye for slogans that travel well—and a better sense of when to localize rather than translate.

Enjoy the conversation? Follow the show, share it with a teammate, and tell us the best and worst one-liners you’ve ever heard. Your pick might feature in a future episode—drop it on your social platform of choice and tag us.

Follow our speakers: 

Charles Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-liu-042b9124/

Jasmine Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-liu-993bb63/

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#CubicPromote #CustomMerchandise #PromotionalItems #Australia #B2B #Podcast #promoplaybookau 

Follow Cubic Promote:
🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au
🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/
👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote
🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote
📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/
⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ
✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to today's episode of the Pro Playbook by Cubic Promotions. Today we're gonna have a fun little topic. The topic is on one-liners. And with me I have a special guest, Jasmine, our financial controller inside our business. It's not often that she comes onto one of our podcasts, but today she's made an exception. Jasmine, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi Charles. Thanks for having me. I'm very happy to do this today.

SPEAKER_00:

Clearly, look very, very pleased. So one-liners is a title of the segment. So share with me some of the more memorable one-liners that you've heard in your life. Obviously, we're in that industry of branding and printing logos and in most instances one-liners. What are some one-liners that have made an impression with you?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. So I'm not I feel like this is going to reflect my age, but definitely like the jingles. I like Bing Lee. Also, another one that's always been my favourite is lucky, you're with Amy. They've kind of really sat with me, and if anything, everyone asks for a jingle, those are the two that I always come up with.

SPEAKER_00:

So these are not just simply one-liners, but these are one-liners that we have a tune and a melody. So that clearly moves the needle for you that the most effective one-liners are not just the words in the cell, whether whether they rhyme or not, but whether they come along with a tune.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. I believe so, yeah. They definitely do resonate with me the most.

SPEAKER_00:

For the listeners who are out there and listening internationally, you've just come up with some jingles that are Australian-based, I believe, and for advertisements.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, Amy is an Australian uh insurance brand.

SPEAKER_00:

Great. And have you And as well, Bingley. And Bingley, the electrical appliance retailer. How about any international ones that you've come across that have really kind of made an impression on you?

SPEAKER_01:

Some memorable ones would probably be because you're worth it. That's the L'Oreal, cosmetics, the skincare. Whenever I want to buy cosmetics, and I think, yeah, I'm worth it. So yeah, of course, I should go and buy it.

SPEAKER_00:

So these little one-liners influence your purchasing decisions when you're walking down the aisle of a supermarket or down the moor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, I look at it and if I think, oh, should I or should I not? And then, you know, it does say I'm worth it. So yep, definitely.

SPEAKER_00:

Would you say that it gives an unfair advantage to those businesses and organizations that could afford the big marketing teams and afford the big PR companies that could push out these messages?

SPEAKER_01:

It makes it they do have a clear advantage.

SPEAKER_00:

One liners don't necessarily need to be used to sell products or sell service. I myself I found that some of the more powerful one-liners have been used for political reasons in some instances, and in some instances, simply a one-liner that resonates to me on a personal level. Some that have come across include the very famous I Have a Dream one-liner from Martin Luther King, where the one-liner begins, I have a dream, followed by another sequence of I Have a Dream, and taken holistically becomes the most iconic speech ever possibly ever made. Another one that I really like the sound of simply because I do have I do do a lot of exercises, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. There's a rhyme and a rhythm to these that really resonate with myself. Let's play a small little game. Let's call it this the soundbite game. So I'm gonna start, Jasmine. I'm gonna name off a series of one-liners, and you're gonna have to share with me who is the company or who's the service or who is the business associated with this one-liner. Sure, let's go. Alright, here we go. First to 10 points wins. Oh, actually, let's make it five, just in case you're not that good at this game. But we'll we'll figure it out. It's finger-licking good. KFC. Well, these are some easier ones. Um Diamond is forever.

SPEAKER_01:

It's uh gotta be jewelry.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you don't know this. Yes, correct. Two out of two.

SPEAKER_01:

Have a break, have a kick at my regret.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright, this is getting far too easy. I'm gonna have to step it up a bit. Snap, crackle, pop. Who's it from?

SPEAKER_01:

It's a cereal, rice, rice bubbles.

SPEAKER_00:

Close enough, yes. The best a man can get. Gillette. I can't believe you even know it. Razor brick razor.

SPEAKER_01:

It had a good jingle. That had a good tune to it, Charles.

SPEAKER_00:

For the love of the game.

SPEAKER_01:

It's gotta do with sports. Yeah. Nike.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, surprisingly, you got that correct. No, this one would be a hard one. I'm sure some of the viewers might know, and so I'll be very surprised if you don't if you do know, Jasmine. The strong silent type. There's no way you could get it. Unless you surprise me.

SPEAKER_01:

Very male-oriented. I feel like this is targeting. No, I'm not sure what that one is, Charles.

SPEAKER_00:

XXXX Gold. It's a beer brand.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm not a beer drinker.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright, final one. This is a very hard one. I'm not a I'm not a shopper. I'm a bargain hunter.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, shopping. Shopping? Kmart or Target?

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, it is indeed Kmart. Well done. You answered correctly for, I believe, over 80-90%. Right?

SPEAKER_01:

Alright, your turn, Charles. So very bad at this, by the way. Drivers want it.

SPEAKER_00:

Uber?

SPEAKER_01:

Volkswagen. It's not about the cars, but the lifestyle and freedom. What about this one? Be your first.

SPEAKER_00:

That's bright.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe she is born with it. Maybelline cosmetics.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. I'm surprised you know. Alright. I'm loving it. McDonald's. Correct. And lucky last one. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's the tough place. But I don't believe they use that jingle anymore, because it's been literally decades since they've last, or since I've last seen an advertisement. They seem to have stopped advertising altogether, I come to think about it.

SPEAKER_01:

But it's very true. They don't melt in your hands. So so with these tags on Charles, what do you reckon? What have you come across any blunders?

SPEAKER_00:

Tagline blunders.

SPEAKER_01:

Blunders were through translation. Because these brands are often not just in English, they're also marketed in Chinese, Spanish. Have you come across any blunders?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm sure there's a couple. I know ourselves in our business, we've branded things for clients that were inappropriate and that we've needed to, or the client and ourselves together, we've needed to recall. Some of the blunders might include a very inappropriate message for each old school leavers, for example. That might be a blunder that was quickly identified once everything was put into motion that we fixed up. I've heard that Pepsi was a blunder when it was translated into the Chinese language. Apparently, Pepsi, when translated into Chinese, come alive with the Pepsi generation. That that was a particular slogan many years ago. It meant Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave. Clearly, not a message you would want to impart to users who would clearly just want to drink a soft, frizzy, sweet drink. A lot of the translations do occur when they are cross-country, across different languages. Chinese is obviously one in Latin America, in various languages, the translation also gets translated in a very, very unusual and bad way. Another one I found, I'm I'm just on the internet right now. Ford Pinto. And the blunder is according to the internet, the Ford Pinto was sold in Latin American countries where pinto means small male genitalia, if you know what I mean. Why it's funny? Obviously, it's funny because why on earth would you want to call your name or your car name of your car a pinto? So that was very, very unfortunate in their instance. Another one that I found online as well is the Chevrolet Nova. When Chevrolet, the car brand, marketed their Nova car in Spanish-speaking countries, they didn't realize Nova means the go in Spanish. So obviously, that's a very, very uh unusual one. How about yourself? I know the word Holden becomes very rare when translated into perhaps a Cantonese language.

SPEAKER_01:

Holden. I don't know that one.

SPEAKER_00:

So Holden, when translated, many people won't realize it sounds a bit like uh you're not very bright in Cantonese. And so those are examples where the translation simply uh won't do well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's also one that a direct translation didn't do too well too, which was the KSC finger looking good. So when they first opened in China in the 80s, it was actually translated as eat your fingers off. Now, I don't know about you, I don't think I want to be eating my fingers, I'd much rather eat the actual chicken itself.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, not at all. It occurred to me if there was any other business, now sorry, for the selfless promotion, our team, Cubic Pro in Australia, is probably the best positioned team, possibly in the whole country, to help marketers and procurement managers with translation blunders because I believe last I counted we had nine different ethnicities working in our business. And so we're literally across nine different languages, nine different cultures. It's actually quite incredible when it comes to the diversity of our team. So anyway, I thought I had a lot of people. Yeah, we are a very multicultural country. Well, thank you, Jasmine, for joining us on today's discussion on one-liners. To the audience out there, have you heard or come across any one-liners that you thought were thought provoking, funny, inappropriate? We'd like to hear it from you. We'd like to see what you have got out there. Please leave us a message on a social media channel of your choice. And thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the promo playbook by Cubic Promotes. Stay tuned for the next one.

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Charles Liu

Host