“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is one of the great taglines of all time (or so says TBWA\Chiat\Day’s Rob Schwartz). For a car company, shortening it to “Life, liberty, and the pursuit” would seem like a cool idea. Modernista! and Cadillac seem to think so, anyway, as they unveil their splashy new ad campaign. Except Honda and its agency, RPA, introduced the same line months ago in ads for the relaunch of the Civic. “Whenever we do an ad, we first check to see if it’s been done before,” RPA’s Larry Postaer tells us. “And that’s de rigeur for old ads, even—this one’s in current use and has been for months.” Saatchi & Saatchi might add that TBWA\Chiat\Day’s “autoclaustrophobia” creative for the Nissan Versa comes only a year after Toyota focused on “adrenalitis” for the Tacoma.

—Posted by Tim Nudd