The Best Stuff on Earth

Snapple’s classic slogan is “made from the best stuff on earth.” This marketing strategy uses an appeal to logos—it’s an enthymeme. The missing logic behind the phrase is as follows:

  1. The best stuff on earth is good for you.
  2. Snapple is made from the best stuff on earth (the actual slogan).
  3. Snapple is good for you.

As most slogans are, this phrase is based on two commonplaces, one more obvious than the other. The first comes in the basic logic behind the phrase. In the first logical step, Snapple assumes everybody knows that using the best stuff means the product is better for you. This is almost a given—it’s basically saying that Snapple is a high quality product made from high quality ingredients. However, there is another commonplace that feeds into this step. It’s not entirely necessary for understanding the slogan, but it adds to the power of the phrase. The commonplace that tea is a healthy drink makes Snapple’s logical argument seem even stronger. Not only is Snapple arguing that their ingredients are quality ingredients; Snapple is also implying that their drink is fundamentally good because of what it is. Tea is better than coffee. Tea has antioxidants. Tea has less caffeine. All of these facts are pretty widely known, and they back up the slogan to make it even more effective than it might seem on the surface.

But Snapple didn’t just stick with this phrase. The company made a new slogan after some time: “The best stuff on earth just got better.” This new phrase builds on the old one, to the pint where its old slogan is actually a commonplace. Snapple assumes everyone knows that Snapple is the best stuff on earth. So now, it got better, and it sounds like they made some positive changes to their recipe. Yet again, this assumes that “better” means higher quality, better taste, and better for you. And, in the advertisements, better ingredients or some kind of positive change is displayed to show that Snapple did something new this time, and it’s even better.

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2 Responses to The Best Stuff on Earth

  1. Timothy Gleason says:

    I’d never thought about Snapple that deeply before. This happens in every class. Life is simple, life makes sense, and suddenly we learn something that makes it all that much more complicated. It’s like physics making me wonder why fish scales read 16 lbs with a 16 lb fish when the ceiling is pulling equally on the top of the scale… anyway, that’s unrelated. I know I’ll be on the lookout now for these things. I’m not sure if this counts, but let’s think of an example. McDonald’s. I’m lovin’ it. He’s loving something. He’s eating at McDonald’s. If I eat at McDonald’s, I’ll be lovin’ it too. That may be stretching it, but it’s interesting.

  2. Sarah Summers says:

    You got it! That’s totally how this enthymeme works. I didn’t even think of it as an enthymeme when I’ve seen it in the past because it’s so easy to take for granted what the meaning is. Nice got spotting this one! Now that you can spot them, you’ll find them everywhere. Have any of you reading this blog found examples of enthymemes at work in your daily lives?

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