Helpful words

Naming names in Whole Foods

by Eli Altman and Alex Zavlaris Our office is right down the street from a Whole Foods. Whenever we’re short on time for lunch, we always seem to find ourselves there. Having spent tons of time meandering through their aisles, we’ve seen all sorts of products. So we figured we would take a shot at…

Nude vs. nude

by Mars Riley I’ll admit it. When I saw the headline “Stella McCartney in nude fight with Ms. Bono,” I, after looking over my shoulder to make sure the coast was clear, clicked the link. Sadly, the article wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but I read it anyway. It seems designer Stella McCartney,…

Corporate sponsorship: America’s new favorite pastime

by Jeffery Racheff Yankee Stadium. Madison Square Garden. Camden Yards. These names conjure more than just sports; they’re icons of popular American culture. Yet nowadays, the names of our favorite sporting arenas are rarely without corporate sponsorship. Since Anheuser Busch convinced the St. Louis Cardinals, and the commissioner of baseball, to change the name of their…

Books are so yesterday–what’s a good name for an electronic reader?

Nicholson Baker, an ace observer of digital culture, has a wonderful “product review” of the Kindle in the August 3rd issue of The New Yorker. Jeff Bezos, whose company, Amazon, as you will remember, used to be all about the printed book, is leading the charge to replace it. Says Bezos, “We think reading is…

The 2010 Taurus: A classic redesign, or the same old bull?

by Jeffery Racheff If you were alive during the ’90s, there’s a pretty good chance you rode in a Ford Taurus. Haters called it a “Flying Jelly Bean” when it debuted in 1986 because of its bulbous, bug-eyed appearance, yet car buyers embraced it wholeheartedly. From 1992 to 1996, it was the best selling car…

Update: The Shack speaks

On Monday we posted an article about RadioShack which recently nicknamed itself The Shack. After a pretty sizable media/blog backlash, The Shack felt the need to defend its actions… From AdAge: “In an interview with Ad Age, Chief Marketing Officer Lee Applbaum downplayed criticisms of the nickname. He pointed out that consumers and media are…

Unsettlingly unsubtle: Herpecin L

by Alex Zavlaris When it comes to naming a product, it’s probably smart not to pick a name that would be embarrassing for your customers to purchase.  One would think that this is pretty obvious advice, but as it turns out, it apparently is not. While I was watching TV the other night I came…

The Shack goes the way of The Hut

So while Pizza Hut is starting to call themselves The Hut, Radio Shack is now toying with the idea of The Shack. Is it just me, or is this slowly starting to spiral out of control? Let’s take bets on when Burger King becomes The King, Wal-Mart becomes The Mart and Safeway and Subway are…

Hooters and adverbs: a perplexing combination

by Eli Altman Well, it’s Friday, so I figured I’d lighten things up a bit and talk about Hooters. You know, the restaurant where guys eat on vacation after attempting to sell their wives with a “…what? They have great chicken wings.” As far as I can tell, these are the guys who subscribe to…

Lululemon on the benefits of the letter L

A friend of mine forwarded me a great article in New York Magazine about Lululemon. The article discusses the evolution of the Lulu brand, as well as a bunch of interesting company quirks and practices. To my surprise, there is also a cool bit on how the founder, Chip Wilson, came up with the name…

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