The man who came up with the iconic slogan ‘Don’t just book it…Thomas Cook it’ 35 years ago has today (Mon) described the firm’s collapse as “a great shame”.
Michael Hennessy, 70, came up with the slogan in 1984 while working for an advertising agency which was employed by Thomas Cook to come up with a new motto.
The retired advertiser has described the loss of the 178-year-old company as a ‘shock’.
Mr Hennessy said: “I was quite shocked to wake up this morning and see the company had gone.
“It’s one of those things you could see coming but it still comes as a surprise nevertheless.
“Knowing that today marks the end of a 178-year-old institution is terribly sad and a great shame.
“I feel very sorry for the people who work for the company, an awful lot of jobs have been lost today.”
He added: “We got the brief and I sat down with my partner to try to come up with a line.
“There was a huge bit of paper that we would decorate with all sorts of ideas until something good came up.
“The ‘Don’t just book it…Thomas Cook it’ just found itself among that luckily.
“First we just had the ‘Don’t just book it’ bit then we realised how much better it was with the ‘Thomas Cook’ line on the end.
“To think it’s still being used nearly 40 years later is incredible.
“It’s obviously a line that caught the public’s imagination in the same way others like ‘Naughty But Nice’ and ‘Beanz Means Heinz’ have.
“I think part of its appeal is that there’s a promise in there, it’s not just another frivolous line.”
Mr Hennessy added: “Thomas Cook were the belt and braces of the travel industry, they prided themselves on being reliable.
“They even had a 24 hour money back guarantee, which at the time was quite groundbreaking, so it’s unfortunately ironic the company now finds itself in this position.”
