Keep on Ticking
“Fear not, For I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” - Isaiah 41:10
In the early 1950s, the Timex Corporation was experiencing dismal sales and the prospect of going out of business. After running numerous campaigns in newspapers and magazines, featuring the likes of Mickey Mantle and Ben Hogan, sales for the durable Timex watch were still disappointing.
Executives panicked trying to figure out what to do and where to turn in order to save the fledging company. In 1956, the company turned to TV in hopes of turning things around. They hired a former NBC news anchor named John Cameron Swayze.
As the spokesman for a series of live, dramatic spots that put Timex watches through what they called a torture test, the spokesman reiterated the Timex slogan, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
That slogan seemed to catch on, and for the next few years the company released commercials with celebrities like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and Mae West putting the watches through the torture tests and then repeating the slogan, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
The slogan was an integral part of the company’s success because it spoke to something that was relevant not just to the engineering of watches but also to the fundamentals of life. In life, we face hardships. In life, we endure terrible, traumatic, and trying tragedies that test our will to go on.
We encounter pain, we go through ups and downs, and we make it because rather than breaking down, we break through. Rather than being overcome, we overcome. Rather than giving up and giving in, we fight on, press on, and move on because, like those watches, we find a way to take a licking and keep on ticking.
Isaiah 41:10 reminds us, “Fear not, For I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” My friend, He is with you. He will strengthen you. And because of that, you must keep on ticking!
In the early 1950s, the Timex Corporation was experiencing dismal sales and the prospect of going out of business. After running numerous campaigns in newspapers and magazines, featuring the likes of Mickey Mantle and Ben Hogan, sales for the durable Timex watch were still disappointing.
Executives panicked trying to figure out what to do and where to turn in order to save the fledging company. In 1956, the company turned to TV in hopes of turning things around. They hired a former NBC news anchor named John Cameron Swayze.
As the spokesman for a series of live, dramatic spots that put Timex watches through what they called a torture test, the spokesman reiterated the Timex slogan, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
That slogan seemed to catch on, and for the next few years the company released commercials with celebrities like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and Mae West putting the watches through the torture tests and then repeating the slogan, “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
The slogan was an integral part of the company’s success because it spoke to something that was relevant not just to the engineering of watches but also to the fundamentals of life. In life, we face hardships. In life, we endure terrible, traumatic, and trying tragedies that test our will to go on.
We encounter pain, we go through ups and downs, and we make it because rather than breaking down, we break through. Rather than being overcome, we overcome. Rather than giving up and giving in, we fight on, press on, and move on because, like those watches, we find a way to take a licking and keep on ticking.
Isaiah 41:10 reminds us, “Fear not, For I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” My friend, He is with you. He will strengthen you. And because of that, you must keep on ticking!
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