In case you don't live in the Southwest United States, do you know what they want us to call the phone company's yellow pages? SWBYPS. Pronounced "SWAH-bips". I understand that Southwestern Bell is trying to distinguish itself from the dozens of other phone directories that print on yellow paper, But the first question in marketing a product is "Why should the customer give a crap?" And apparently, Southwestern Bell doesn't get it.

Instead of pointing out a benefit to the consumer, they're trying to create a catch phrase. Catch phrases aren't created, they happen.

Saturday Night Live alumnus Jon Lovitz tells a story about his "Frenchie" character. He thought it would be his best bet to achieve immortality if he could create a catch phrase for him. Do you remember what it was? Neither does anyone else. That's because Frenchie was contrived. It was a bad impression of a French stereotype. When Frenchie was toast, so to speak, Lovitz was about to quit when he came up with the Compulsive Liar. The Liar was an amalgum of real people. The phrase "That's the ticket!" was something you actually heard people say. Thus, the catch phrase happened.

Thanks for reading

Ron Harper - August, 2000

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