The famous ‘Don’t just book it… Thomas Cook it’ strapline has been revived mulitple times since the 80s, but companies’ money would be better spent on restoring consumer confidence
June 16, 2022 5:31 pm(Updated 5:33 pm)
Holidays are a competitive game. Airlines and train lines, hotels and rental platforms, luggage and beauty brands are all vying for your hard-earned money (even if it feels like they’re taking sadistic pleasure having done so while you are penned into an overcrowded airport or waiting forlornly at the baggage carousel).
There are thousands of people and places that want your custom, and will come up with all sorts of ways to grab your attention.
Thomas Cook probably doesn’t want to be remembered for its 2019 collapse, but having been brought back to life as an online platform by Chinese conglomerate Fosun, it is once again reviving the marketing slogan “Don’t just book it, Thomas Cook it” for a summer bookings campaign.
It is not the first time – the strapline, coined by advertising creative Michael Hennessy in 1984, was brought back by various creative agencies in 2008, and again in 2018. Thomas Cook’s target demographic wasn’t born when it was first coined. This creative recycling either acknowledges the success of a branding phenomenon, or is a sign of the times, when there aren’t millions to splash on catchy campaigns.
The name is the game
Back in the disco era of the international travel traffic-light system, headlined by MC Grant Shapps – when not much travel was going on because, well, Covid – some colleagues and I took to reminiscing about some of the most memorable travel slogans.
A recurring favourite was Colombia’s “The only risk is wanting to stay” – a campaign that arrived in 2008 as rebel-held hostages and government-held prisoners began to be released, and the country looked towards a more peaceful future.
A decade later, Lithuania went viral with the Go Vilnius campaign: “The G-spot of Europe – nobody knows where it is, but when you find it, it’s amazing.”
There was also “El Salvador: the 45-minute country”, which was meant to relay the fact that you’re only ever three-quarters of an hour from the capital San Salvador in this small nation, but which I took to mean you wouldn’t want to spend any longer there. (I didn’t, after armed police clustered around me while I emailed home at an internet cafe.)
The crude and the rude
An advert from the Syrian Ministry of Tourism, entitled “Syria, always beautiful”, five years into the civil war in 2016, was widely mocked after it promoted sunloungers, jet-skis and swimmers on the beaches of Tartus, just 55 miles west of war-destroyed Homs.
From the objectionable to the mythical: “C U in the NT” turned out to be not the work of Australia’s Northern Territory tourist board, but an unofficial fan group. Such was its success that it continues to sell all manner of merch, from beanie hats to beer coolers.
The truth is, no matter how catchy or attention-grabbing a slogan is, its power is usually short-lived. Whether you Thomas Cook your holiday this summer, feel safe enough to visit Colombia or want to spend a week or more in El Salvador, your time and money are likely to feel more precious than ever. Tourism companies will need to recognise that, and spend time investing in your confidence instead.