Memorex's Slogans & Taglines

Memorex Corp. began as a computer tape producer in 1961, founded by Laurence L. Spitters and former Ampex engineers in Silicon Valley. It quickly expanded into IBM plug-compatible peripherals and disk drives, becoming a major enterprise technology supplier. The brand's defining moment came in 1972 with the iconic advertising campaign featuring Ella Fitzgerald and the unforgettable question, "Is it live or is it Memorex?"—a tagline that transformed the company from a B2B hardware vendor into a household name. Though the consumer business was sold to Tandy in 1982 and the enterprise arm was absorbed into Burroughs and later Unisys, the Memorex brand survived multiple acquisitions, including Imation in 2006 and DPI in 2016. Today, it continues as a consumer electronics brand, proving that great marketing can give a name a life far beyond its original products.