How “it” Quietly Became Branding’s Secret Weapon

The other day, I was replaying ads and jingles in my head, the ones that somehow embed themselves in your memory whether you want them to or not. And then it suddenly clicked: there’s one tiny word hiding in almost all of them;

Not “you.” Not “love.” Just… it.

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s like “it” has quietly moved into our collective brain and claimed prime linguistic real estate.

Here are just a few examples:

• “Just do it.” (Nike)

• “I’m lovin’ it.” (McDonald’s)

• “Because you’re worth it.” (L’Oréal)

• “Have it your way.” (Burger King)

• “Do you have it in you?” (Gatorade)

• “It starts on TikTok” (TikTok)

• “It keeps going, and going, and going.” (Energizer)

• “Don’t live life without it.” (American Express)

• “It’s Pimm’s o’clock.” (Pimm’s)

• “It Has To Be Heinz.” (Heinz)

Double its:

• “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.” (Maybelline)

• “You’ve got to feel it to believe it.” (Garnier) 

• “You can do it, when you B&Q it.” (B&Q)

• “You either love it or hate it.” (Marmite)

• “It does exactly what it says on the tin.” (Ronseal)

The elusive triple it:

• “Buy it. Sell it. Love it.” (eBay)

These slogans have nothing in common and everything in common. Different eras, different categories, different cultures, yet they all orbit the same pronoun. Taken together, these slogans reveal a subtle pattern, one that shapes how modern branding speaks to us.

We remember these lines decades later because they’re simple, sticky and emotionally charged, but the real trick is that they almost never tell you what it actually is. And that’s exactly what makes it so clever.

Why “It” Works

In marketing, clarity is king: say what you mean, keep it simple, avoid ambiguity.

Yet the world’s most enduring slogans break that rule completely. They don’t define the product, the benefit, or even the emotion. They leave it open. And that openness is the point. Ambiguity invites participation. When a message leaves space, we instinctively fill it with our own meaning. We decide what “it” means—and that makes the slogan feel personal.

Nike isn’t talking about shoes. McDonald’s isn’t talking about burgers. L’Oréal isn’t talking about shampoo.

They’re talking about you: your goals, your feelings, your identity.

“It” becomes a blank canvas—a linguistic gap the audience rushes to fill. A container flexible enough to hold whatever meaning a person brings to it while still connecting to what the brand stands for.

That’s why these slogans travel far and last long: they don’t tell you what ‘it’ is;  they let you decide.

How the Great Brands Use “It”

If you look closely at the slogans that built entire brand empires, “it” does very different jobs depending on who’s using it, but the mechanism is always the same:

The pattern isn’t about the word itself, it’s about the relationship it creates between brand and audience.

Take Nike.

Their “it” isn’t the shoe or the sport. It’s the thing you keep putting off. The thing you need to push yourself through. Nike’s brilliance lies in never naming the action. Because whatever “it” is for you, that’s the most motivating version.

Then there’s McDonald’s.

Their “it” isn’t the Big Mac. It’s the moment. The break in your day, the small, easy pleasure. “I’m lovin’ it” works because “it” could be the food, the company, the nostalgia, or simply the feeling of not cooking. It’s a mood more than a message.

And Maybelline?

Their double ‘it’ turns “it” into a question. “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline.”

One “it” refers to natural beauty; the other to cosmetic enhancement. The tension is the fun. It’s a little mystery the audience gets to solve; even though the answer is obvious.

Then there’s eBay.

If most brands use “it,” eBay owns it. You can see that in the trail of slogans over the years:

• “Whatever it is you’re looking for, do it on eBay.”

• “Whatever it is.”

• “You can get it on eBay.”

• “Come to think of it, eBay.”

• “Buy it. Sell it. Love it.”

This isn't a coincidence. It’s a worldview.

Here, “it” really does mean anything. The obscure part. The discontinued thing. The object you can picture perfectly but can’t quite name. Whatever sparks the thought, eBay is where it leads.

Four brands, four completely different uses of “it.” Different executions, but the same dynamic: brands provide the structure, and people supply the meaning.

From Product to Identity

“It” didn’t rise to the top of brand language by accident. Its dominance coincides with one of the biggest shifts in modern marketing: the move from product communication to identity communication.

In the late 20th century—especially through the 1980s and 1990s—categories became crowded, products became harder to differentiate, and brand storytelling became more psychological than functional. Brands stopped saying “Here’s what this does” and started saying “Here’s who you can be.” “It” arrived at exactly the right moment.

Two letters became a shortcut for a much bigger cultural transition:

• Consumers weren’t looking for instructions; they were looking for meaning.

• Brands weren’t selling products; they were selling aspiration, belonging, confidence.

• Advertising wasn’t about features; it was about the identity you performed by choosing the brand.

“It” fit this landscape perfectly because it suggested something without pinning it down. It let people project their own ambitions, anxieties, desires, and stories into the slogan—and the lack of definition became a form of emotional precision.

In a culture that increasingly prizes self‑expression, “it” mirrors the shift from mass identity to personal identity. Consumers want to see themselves in the message, not be told what to think or feel. Brands that understood this early on built enduring emotional platforms; those that didn’t sound too literal, too prescriptive, too 20th‑century.

That’s the real power of leaving space: it acknowledges that meaning lives with the audience, not the brand.

“It” wasn’t just a clever linguistic trick—it was a perfect match for a world where people want brands to reflect them, not the other way around.

Lessons for Brand Teams

If one small pronoun can power decades of great advertising, what does that mean for the rest of us?

1. Leave Space for Meaning Not every line needs to explain everything. A little openness invites audiences to project their own stories and see themselves in the message.

2. Anchor Ambiguity in Brand Clarity Ambiguity only works when the brand underneath is already clear. Nike can say “Just do it.” A brand no one understands can’t. Without a strong identity, “it” doesn’t feel open, it feels empty.

3. Earn the Right to Be Vague Established brands get away with “it” because they’ve spent years — sometimes decades — building a recognisable world. People already know the tone, values, category and promise, so the ambiguity has something to latch onto. New or emerging brands don’t yet own that mental space. For them, “it” isn’t a canvas, it’s a blur. Before you can leave things unsaid, you have to give people something solid to remember.

4. Speak to Identity, Not Product People don’t buy products; they buy the version of themselves the brand helps them become. “It” works best when it points to who the audience feels they are, or want to be.

5. Let Language and Visuals Work Together Nike’s austerity. McDonald’s vibrancy. L’Oréal’s elegance.

“It” only works when the wider brand world supports it. The words leave space, but the visuals, tone and behaviour quietly tell you how that space should feel.

When “It” Doesn’t Work

Of course, “it” isn’t foolproof. It only works when the brand and the context can support the ambiguity. When they don’t, “it” becomes a liability.

A classic example is Coors’ “Turn it loose,” which collapsed internationally after the Spanish translation turned “it” into slang for “suffer from diarrhoea.” 

Parker Pens ran into similar trouble when entering the Mexican market. Their original English line, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.”  was mistranslated into Spanish using the verb embarazar, which doesn’t mean “embarrass” but “to impregnate.” Overnight, the slogan became: “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

The problem wasn’t just the translation error; it was that the “it” suddenly carried a meaning no one intended.

The pattern is consistent: “It” only works when the audience already knows what “it” should or could mean. When they don’t, the meaning gets filled with confusion, jokes, or the wrong idea entirely.

Beyond “It”: Vagueness as a Branding Tool

Vagueness isn’t unique to “it.” Many modern global brands use suggestive, incomplete language to create space for the audience, letting meaning form in the consumer’s mind rather than in the slogan itself.

Take Sky’s “Believe in Better.” “Better” is deliberately unfinished. It could mean better content, better service, better value, or simply a better everyday experience. The word works because Sky already owns a certain emotional and functional territory. This open‑endedness also enables the line to work seamlessly across their mixed portfolio of products and services, acting as a single, unifying promise across all categories.

Then there’s Columbia’s “Engineered for Whatever.” “Whatever” is as open-ended as it gets. The brand doesn’t define the scenario; the wearer does. Whatever weather, whatever terrain, whatever the day throws at you. Columbia’s credibility in performance gear lets that vagueness land as possibility, not confusion.

A more emotional example comes from Dove’s “Real Beauty.” The line doesn’t define what “real” is,  it actually becomes more powerful because it refuses to. The audience fills the gap with their own standards, insecurities, and aspirations. The slogan works because Dove has built a brand world where openness feels like an invitation, not a dodge.

All three examples show that vagueness only works when the brand underneath is specific.

Sky can leave “better” open because the brand signals what “better” means. Columbia can leave “whatever” open because reliability is already baked in. Dove can leave “real” open because the brand has earned permission to talk about self-image.

“It” is just the most compact version of that same principle — two letters that leave space for the audience, but only because the brand has already given them something to believe in.

In a world where identity, emotion and self‑expression define value, leaving space might just be the most powerful storytelling move of all.

The Craft of Leaving Space

Great copywriting isn’t just about finding the right words. It’s about knowing when to stop. “It” works because it gestures instead of declaring. It points beyond itself and pulls people in.

That’s not vagueness. That’s respect. 

When brands trust their audience to finish the sentence, the message becomes theirs.

And that’s the secret hiding in plain sight:

Two letters. Endless possibilities.

And that’s it.