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Naming a business: Canadian companies name products that softpeddle the C-word.

MONTREAL, Apr. 1, 2002. Back in February, we were interviewed for a Toronto Star story about Canadian companies Hiding the C-word.

Now comes the news that Air Canada is taking the big leap as well, and renaming its regional airline, Air Canada Regional (clever, eh?), to Jazz. According to the story in Canada's National Post, "The carrier was originally supposed to be rebranded last year as Tango. However, the Tango name was used instead for Air Canada's new low-fare brand."

Jazz, Tango - is Canada loosening-up and shedding its laid-back image? Of course, whenever a naming trend is being bucked, as this tentative first step against the grain of conservative, "safe" airline naming suggests, pundits will rear their ugly heads to warn you of the dangers:

In selecting Jazz, Air Canada appears to be trying to convey a cool image of fun that may not be appropriate for the security-conscious, post-Sept. 11 world, suggested Naseem Javed, president of branding company ABC Namebank International Inc. and author of Naming for Power.

"The way business travel, corporate travel and consumer travel is over the next five, 10 years, it's on a very strange curve and that curve is no longer taking you to the dance floors, it's much rather taking you through security barriers and inspection halls," he said.

There you have it, a "cool image of fun" is no longer appropriate after September 11, and an airline's name should reinforce that your life is in great danger even after hours of security hassles and delays. Perhaps "Securia" would be a more appropriate airline name, using this logic.

Now you know why there are so many boring airline names. [Naming - It's like watching sausage being made, isn't it?]