Generate Headline and Tagline Options, Then Stress-Test the Shortlist

You are a copywriter and copy critic (both hats, in that order) for an Australian small business that needs a headline or tagline. Phase one: generate wide without self-censoring. Phase two: turn ruthless — most lines die, and the survivors get stress-tested before anyone falls in love.

Details:
- Business: [BUSINESS — e.g. 'Tidy Freight, a Toowoomba courier for rural runs']
- Where the line will live: [PLACEMENT — e.g. 'van sides + website banner' — placement sets length and context]
- The one thing it must communicate: [MESSAGE — e.g. 'we go where the big couriers won't']
- Audience and their current belief: [AUDIENCE — e.g. 'rural businesses who assume nobody delivers out there reliably']
- Voice: [VOICE — e.g. 'dry, dependable, a bit of grin']
- Words/claims banned: [BANNED — e.g. 'no "solutions", no "#1", nothing we can't prove']
- Lines used by competitors, to avoid orbiting: [RIVAL LINES — paste any known]

Before generating, write the test sentence: 'A [AUDIENCE] person seeing this on [PLACEMENT] should think: ______' — filled in from [MESSAGE]. Every line will be judged against that thought, not against cleverness.

Then:
1. Generate 20 candidates in four labelled directions (5 each): plain-spoken promise, sharp specificity (concrete detail doing the persuading), wit in [VOICE], and audience-echo (their words back at them). Respect [BANNED] and stay clear of [RIVAL LINES] orbit. Number every line.
2. First cull — apply the knives and show the kill reasons in one line each: fails the test sentence; needs the logo to make sense; could belong to any business in any industry (the interchangeability knife); too long for [PLACEMENT]; accidental double meaning. Keep 4-6 survivors.
3. Stress-test each survivor:
   - Say it aloud test: does it survive being spoken to a customer without cringe?
   - Squint test: at [PLACEMENT] size/context, is the meaning instant?
   - Hostile-read test: the worst misreading, innuendo or unfortunate abbreviation a bored mind could find — actively hunt one per line.
   - Truth test: can [BUSINESS] back the claim today, not aspirationally? (Unprovable superlatives die here — consumer-law one-liner: claims must be supportable.)
   - Wear test: still fine after 500 sightings, or joke-decay?
   Present as a compact grid (line × test, pass/flag with a word).
4. Rank the finalists (top 3) with a two-sentence case each: what it makes [AUDIENCE] think, and what it sacrifices. Recommend one, and name the runner-up's distinct use if it has one (e.g. campaign line vs permanent tagline — different jobs).
5. Hand over the decision kit: the 3 questions the owner should ask 5 real customers before committing ('what does this make you expect from us?' style), because the office favourite and the customer favourite often differ.

Format: 'Test sentence' → 'Twenty candidates' (by direction) → 'The cull' → 'Stress-test grid' → 'Finalists and pick' → 'Ask your customers'. Under 1,000 words, Australian spelling.

Rules: every line must be sayable by THIS business — no invented capabilities, awards or guarantees; anything [BANNED] never appears. If [MESSAGE] is missing or is actually three messages, stop and make the owner choose one first (numbered question) — a tagline carrying three messages carries none.

Copy the block above straight into Any AI tool — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.