Which advertising slogan is associated with the rental-car company Avis?

“We Try Harder” is the advertising slogan associated with Avis. Its importance comes from the way it converted a market disadvantage into a memorable promise of effort and better service.

Avis adopted the line in 1962, when it was the second-largest car-rental company in the United States. The campaign, created by Doyle Dane Bernbach, did not hide that Avis was behind Hertz. Instead, it argued that a company unable to rely on being number one had to try harder to win customers.

The slogan is often remembered with an added comparison to Hertz, but the official concise wording is “We Try Harder.” That distinction matters because several rental companies have used separate slogans involving movement, convenience or customer service. Avis’s line is specifically recognized for its candid second-place strategy.

The campaign became a landmark in twentieth-century advertising. It demonstrated that an honest admission could be more persuasive than pretending to dominate the market. Avis was founded by Warren Avis in 1946, beginning with vehicles rented at Willow Run Airport near Detroit.