“We Speak X,” Part Deux

Fast-food chain Long John Silver’s recently unveiled a new logo and tagline. Design blog Brand New commented:

The new look attempts to change the perception of LJS from a low-end, boppy fast-food chain to a faux, semi-upscale one. A worthy goal, but a really hard one to achieve, especially when a lot of their locations are still housed in what look like smelly fisherman cottages.

And look: The tagline is a spin on our old snowclone friend, “We Speak X.”

 

 

I had a momentary flash of LJS employees greeting customers with a friendly “Glub glub!” Maybe some dolphin squeaks thrown in for comic relief. But I digress.

I cited several “We Speak X” slogans (“We Speak Car,” “We Speak Human,” etc.) in a January 2010 post. But there’s a rich vein of We Speak X that I hadn’t mined. Some examples:

“We Speak Customer.” That’s Empathica, a company that began in 2001 with “four passionate people, lots of coffee, and a vision.” A vision that involved “an intimate relationship” with … oh, get a room!

“We Speak Student.” Actually, it’s WeSpeakStudent.com, “Canada’s leading student insurer,” and I feel compelled to warn you that the site’s animated home page may push you into the barfogenic zone.

“We Speak PC.” Which is also the company's name. Caveat: Audio of screeching tires. Must be one of the phonemes in PC-ish.

“We Speak Tennis.” The slogan of Superior International Tennis Outfitters in Cape Coral, Florida.

“We Speak Food.” The slogan of the Culinary Institute of America, whose website unfortunately does not have a lexicon of foodspeak.

 

When I wrote about “We Speak X” last year, Jessica commented that she was reminded of a certain movie scene. I reproduce it here for your enjoyment.

 

 

Comments

[John Cowan]

"Faux"? Does that mean they wish to be seen as retailers of fake fish?