How to Find Your Slogan

You are ready for the election campaign: you have your platform, a team, and the drive to win. But then you realize one thing is missing—a slogan—and you don't have the faintest idea how to create one. Don't worry, this guide is here to help.

What Is a Slogan?

💡 A slogan is a short, high-impact phrase that summarizes the core message of your campaign.

An effective slogan summarizes your positioning, your platform, and why people should vote for you.

Here are a few examples of successful slogans:

• "Yes We Can" → Barack Obama
• "Make America Great Again" → Ronald Reagan (and Trump)
• "Freeze the Rent" → Zohran Mamdani

Why a Slogan Works

A slogan works if, in just a few words, it successfully bridges these two key pieces:

1. It conveys what the voters want to hear.
2. It reflects who the candidate is (and what their proposals are).

"Yes We Can" worked brilliantly because it spoke of hope and change to an America that had lost faith in the future following the Bush-era wars. Above all, it was perfectly embodied by a candidate like Obama, who represented the African American community's hope for empowerment. In short, it perfectly captured the concepts of hope and change.

Before Thinking About the Slogan

So, how do you actually find one? First, you need to understand:

• Who you want to talk to—your voters
• Who you are as a candidate—your profile

Finding your target voters doesn't mean simply saying, "I want to reach the dissatisfied," or "I want to talk to young people." Finding your audience means identifying several hyper-specific segments of the population along with their key problems or fears. Examples might include "Unemployed adults under 30 without a college degree" or "Finance professionals who fear AI automation," etc. This is a long and complex step that often requires listening directly to the people involved, so take your time.

To understand who you are as a candidate, you need to analyze both your "political" background (such as past public office) and your "non-political" background (such as a successful career). An example is Trump, who built his political persona around his past career as a successful entrepreneur (or at least a self-proclaimed one).

Why Should I Vote for You?

Now that you understand your audience and your candidacy, you need to determine what your voters want and how you can deliver it to them. Put simply, you just need to answer the question: "Why should I vote for you?". To answer this question, use just three or four words. That will be your slogan!

As mentioned earlier, a slogan summarizes your campaign promise—your solutions to the voters' problems. To do this effectively, it is highly recommended that you draft your full campaign platform first. If you don't know how to write one yet, don't worry—a guide on that is coming soon.

Common Slogan Mistakes

To wrap up, here is a quick overview of common mistakes to avoid when creating a slogan:

• Making it about yourself instead of the voters. Remember, nobody votes for you simply because of who you are; they vote for the problems you can solve for them.
• Using puns or wordplay. Avoid "clever" puns. They might prompt a smile, but they don't answer "Why should I vote for you?" and can make your message less clear.
• Being too vague. The more localized your campaign is, the more concrete your slogan needs to be (e.g., "Subway Extension to X!").
• Relying on empty filler slogans. Never—and I mean never—use generic phrases like "For a Better City," "Together for Change," or similar clichés. They carry no real meaning.

Don't Be Afraid to Copy

Did reading this guide give you a headache? Don't worry, that's completely normal. Finding the right slogan is tough and takes a lot of time.

A smart shortcut is to look at successful slogans from the past and adapt them to your own context and narrative framework. A classic example of an adapted slogan is Trump's "Make America Great Again," which was borrowed from Reagan.

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Cover photo: TonyTheTiger at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. In-article photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.