‘Chestnut’ slogans that just keep winning Part 3
Another area of debate in the “chestnut” world is – when exactly does copying or adapting another slogan move from being theft or plagiarism of someone’s original work, to being an acceptable exploitation of something firmly in the public domain? It’s difficult to know where to draw the line, and don't forget that even the likes of “experts” and “made men too” were original slogans once! I can only hope that the original authors of these classics received some handsome rewards before others jumped on the bandwagon – but like it or not they’ve now crossed over into public ownership. Direct copying of an original, new winning slogan could, on the other hand, be seen differently by many compers. Again, I have no intention of passing judgement on whether this is unethical or unsporting – we all have our own opinions – but it’s a difficult area. For a slogan to achieve true chestnut status, it must win lots of competitions. Which means that at least a few people must be prepared to use the slogan when it’s arguably still at the ‘original’ stage. With such a classic Catch 22 situation, and such blurred indistinct boundaries, it’s not an argument that I intend getting involved in. Like so many other aspects of comping, it’s a subject about which you must make up your own mind and proceed in a manner with which you are comfortable. Just try not to impose your own values and opinions on others, live and let live, because otherwise that’s when the fighting starts!
Following on from the “when does a slogan become a chestnut” debate, we could argue that there’s a time when a chestnut becomes almost original again. If a historic slogan falls out of fashion and lies dormant for a while, the time will invariably come when, with a brief dusting down and an injection of newer, more contemporary references, an old chestnut once again becomes ripe for the picking. Consider “I’m no Krystal in suspenders, more like Pauline in Eastenders”. I might be wrong, but at the time of writing this I haven’t seen this blast from the past feature in any winners lists for a good while. The ‘Krystal’ bit would need some tweaking obviously (it’s a reference to the 80s soap opera ‘Dynasty’ for anyone too young to remember!) – perhaps replacing with one of the Hollyoaks characters or similarly glamorous current soap star – but the rest still stands up, twenty-odd years after the slogan first appeared. But, once a chestnut always a chestnut I suppose, and doubtless anything along these lines on a winners list even after such a long time away will still attract the customary hoots of derision from those of us with long memories.
