Adverteyes is a database of who’s said what, where and when in advertisements. It includes endlines, slogans, straplines, taglines and trademarks that are currently appearing or have appeared in the UK, Ireland and the USA media. Data from unique campaigns in Canada, Australia, India and South Africa is now being added. The database is intended to provide assurance that a proposed ad line will not infringe on the current use of that line by others. It also provides information on current overly used advertising themes and on what specific brands have ‘said’ through the years. The most recent 100 straplines added to the database can be viewed free of charge but you need to subscribe to search the whole database. The annual subscription is currently £19.95

You can search using phrases or keywords that appear in the slogan combined with a product category such as airlines or foods. Alternatively you can just select a category. You cannot search directly by brand name or company – those are only picked up if they appear in the slogan. The results give the “line”, brand name, product category, product, media (print, radio, television, outdoor, other), year and country. The results are listed by ad line in alphabetical order but you can re-sort them by brand name.

The database goes back to the 1950’s and ’60’s, and it is interesting to see what advertisers could get away with at that time. There was the famous – or should that be infamous? – “Guinness is good for you” but Guinness also ran a campaign claiming that “a Guinness a day keeps the doctor away”!