Stuck on Band-Aid Brand: Difference between revisions

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{{examples}}
== Fictional Examples[[Film]] ==
=== Films -- Live-Action ===
* One particularly jarring example in the movie ''[[Cabin Fever (film)|Cabin Fever]]''; on their way to the title cabin, [[James DeBello]]'s character says he left his "''Mott's'' apple juice" back at the general store. Much like the [[Saturday Night Live|cowbell]] in [[Blue Öyster Cult]]'s "Don't Fear The Reaper", once you notice it, you can't un-notice it.
 
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
 
=== Tabletop Games ===
* The ''[[Paranoia]]'' [[Tabletop RPG]] has this in universe, with B3. Officially, you are required to refer to "Bouncy Bubble Beverage Tee Emm Brand Beverage". Even in termination-happy Alpha Complex, shortening that is normal.
 
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Part of a running [[Expospeak Gag]] in ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''. Aperture Science tends to give everything they produce a convoluted title preceded by their own name, which culminates in this:
{{quote|'''GLadOS''': Did you just toss the Aperture Science [[Buffy-Speak|Thing We Don't Know What It Does]] into the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator?}}
 
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Parodied in ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'':
{{quote|'''Injured Customer:''' Mary, Mother of God! I cut my hand on a rubber band! Do you sell Band-Aids?
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** [[SpongeBob SquarePants]] has played with a "small plastic disk that you throw". Looking for a less unwieldy name, they come up with a "small plastic disk that you ''toss''".
 
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* Part of a running [[Expospeak Gag]] in ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''. Aperture Science tends to give everything they produce a convoluted title preceded by their own name, which culminates in this:
{{quote|'''GLadOS''': Did you just toss the Aperture Science [[Buffy-Speak|Thing We Don't Know What It Does]] into the Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator?}}
 
== [[Real-Life ExamplesLife]] ==
 
== Real-Life Examples ==
 
=== Clothing Products ===
* Americans (and Britons) seem to be under the impression that ''Speedo'' is the name of the style of men's undergarments/swimming clothes that basically cover the genitals, buttocks and little else. ''Speedo'' is the name of the Australian company that ''makes'' such items of swimwear. We call the ''items'' "bathers", "undies" or "[[Did Not Do the Bloody Research|Budgie smugglers]]". "Budgie Smuggler" is the dirtier one, and slightly offensive to some people. [[Don't Explain the Joke|It comes from the fact that, wearing one, it looks like you're smuggling a small bird in your underwear.]]
* Although Onesies is a trademark of Gerber, it has become a generic term (at least, in America) for the little shirt-thingies worn by babies. Gerber was/is not pleased.
 
 
=== Computer and Electronic Products ===
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** '''''Always capitalize and use trademarks in their correct form.''' CORRECT: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software. INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped. INCORRECT: The image was Photoshopped. INCORRECT: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped.''
** A lot of people now use "photochopped" or "[[Memetic Mutation|photoshooped]]". (Uh-uh. You can't name it confusingly similar.)
** Finally all the way down to "[[Memetic Mutation|shopped]]", because who has time to type 3three syllables.
** The part about Adobe® AIR® took it to dangerous levels: You can't use "AIR" anywhere in the title of your application, your company/trade dba name, your domain name, in your service name, or if it is related to Adobe® AIR® software (unless, of course, you're Adobe.)
**** [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|So if I make an application to simulate, say, breathing, I can't call it "AIR BREATHING SIMULATION"?]]
* See also [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3006486.stm "Googling"], meaning "Look up on a search engine, Google or not."
** Honestly, though, who the hell uses anything but '''Google® Brand Search Engine'''?
** Parodied savagely by Google during [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/different-kind-of-company-name.html 2010 April Fools].
*** Parodying themselves as well, as older Google blog posts also had this lecture.
** ''New Scientist'' magazine, as it's in print, had to get around this, so every time they refer to Google they say "a famous web search engine" or "FWSE" for short.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20110109235257/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1915736 "Google it with Bing"]. Even Microsoft employees aren't afraid to use this joke in public (in mild rebellion against the company line to, of course, promote Bing for searching... er, ''[[Insistent Terminology|decisioning]]'' where possible). No doubt Microsoft would be overjoyed if people started talking about "binging" things ([[Binge Montage|when pronounced properly, of course]]).
*** On the new Hawaii-50, they did, in fact, "bing" something. On a cell phone.
* Commercials for Helio mobile products go so far as to have people come to blows or suffer a [[Karmic Death]] if they dare refer to their devices as a "phone". One of those commercials also had a [[Discriminate and Switch]] when the daughter brings home a man of a different race and doesn't care about the very offensive things her parents say, but she does get upset over their calling his Helio a phone.
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*** Back in the 80s (when IBM-type PCs were relatively common as home computers but by no means the ubiquitous choice they later became) people would often refer to one as "an IBM-compatible".
**** Besides, the current Mac is effectively a PC with some architecture changes; that explains the success of the "hackintosh" versions of Mac OS X (running it on non-Apple hardware).
* Making a photocopy of something will often be called "xeroxing" it in the popular lexicon. Xerox is but only one company that makes photocopiers. Every few years, Xerox Corp. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140510121904/http://www.brandng.com/marketing/2010/05/xerox-begs-movie-execs-to-zip-it-about-xeroxing.html runs campaigns] to clarify that Xerox is not a verb.
 
 
=== Food Products ===
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* This upbeat [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRESIYTRZzU commercial] for M&M's carefully adds a "chocolate candies" to the first and last times the product's name is mentioned. While the first shout-out is worked into the song, the second one is done as a voiceover that otherwise has no rhyme or reason.
 
=== Health &and Beauty Products ===
 
=== Health & Beauty Products ===
* Adding unspeakable insult to injury, the original trope-naming "Stuck On Me" Band-Aid without Brand [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUY8cchr8jk commercial] had even earned a Clio Award (comparable to an Oscar in the advertising world), including a shared credit for the song's composer [[Barry Manilow]].
** In Britain, "plaster" ([[We All Live in America|Band-Aid]]) is used. However, "plaster" isn't a brand name in itself (the closest to "plaster" is the brand Elastoplast).
* Make sure you use Bayer Aspirin if you're about to have a heart attack, it'll save your life. Presumably if you can only find other aspirin, it sucks to be you.
** This only applies in the US, UK, and France, where Bayer lost the trademark on "Aspirin" after World War I. In the rest of the world the generic name is "acetylsalicylic acid" (or "ASA").
*** Or, in Poland, "*pirin". There's "Polopirin", "Etopirin", "Coffepirin" (with caffeine) and "Calcipirin" (with Calcium, apparently for cold).
*** Or, in Russia, it is simply aspirin, since the old Soviet command economy didn't care about capitalist laws and customs and just produced aspirin without asking permission.
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=== Mass Media ===
* [[DC Comics]] and [[Marvel Comics]] famously hold a joint trademark on the terms "Super Hero" and "SUPER HEROES",<ref>note the space and capitalization</ref> so that in practice no other facilities are allowed to use the term to advertise (or similarly title their products) in related situations. Legally, they own bupkis except lawyers. They "bought" the word from Mego Toys. But they're both so sue-happy that no-one dares (or can afford to) challenge them.
* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) [http://www.oscars.org/legal/index.html would like to remind you] that Academy Award® and Oscar® are both registered trademarks. Although you can hear someone thanking "The Academy" for an award, they never say ''what'' academy or call it an "[[Academy Award]]", unless the AMPAS has given permission.
 
 
=== Sports ===
* If you like association football (soccer in the US), please be reminded that there isn't a world championship. You have to call it "FIFA World Cup™."
* The [[Super Bowl]] is a registered trademark of the National Football League. Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or other use of this term without the express written consent of the NFL is prohibited. Which is why advertisers who want to hawk Super Bowl-related products without actually paying the NFL for the right to use the words will often euphemistically refer to something like "the big game," or "getting ready for Sunday," and trust the listener to connect the dots. And any organization or business that wants to host a Super Bowl party had better not call it a Super Bowl party unless they want the pants sued off them, even if it's a free event hosted by a non-profit organization like a local community [https://web.archive.org/web/20130113043625/http://www.copyrightcommunity.com/avoid-being-tackled-by-super-bowl-copyright-infringement church].
** This is the primary reason for the proliferation of the "Superb Owl" meme in the 2010s.
* American sports fans often refer to the semifinals of any championship tournament as the Final Four, thanks to the high popularity of college basketball. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is quite firm about reminding fans, media outlets, and advertisers that Final Four® is a registered trademark in the United States, and may ONLY be used (with permission) to refer to the semi-finals of the NCAA's own postseason championship tournaments.
** Also in relation to the NCAA's championship tournaments, the terms Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight are likewise trademarked in the United States, but not solely by the NCAA. Elite Eight® is jointly owned by the NCAA and the Illinois High School Association. Sweet Sixteen® is owned by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association for its championships, and it licenses the term to the NCAA. Officially neither term can be used for any other tournament or competition in the United States. Unofficially, sports fans still make generic use of both terms, though not nearly to the extent that they do with Final Four.
 
=== Toys &and Video Game Products ===
 
=== Toys & Video Game Products ===
* LEGO would like to remind you that "[[LEGO]]" must always be capitalized and works only as an adjective for their products, e.g. "LEGO bricks." An individual block is not "a Lego." The tiny LEGO people are called minifig.
** This seems to be more of an American thing that doesn't get used so much in the UK. However, in Germany it's common to call them ''Legos'' (though the probably company-approved ''Legosteine'' - ''LEGO bricks'' - is in use as well)
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* Video game companies deal with this trope all the time, as the most popular system often becomes a synonym for video gaming itself. It's still common to hear people (mostly non-gamers who don't know anything about video games and systems) to say that they are "playing Atari" or "playing Nintendo" even though these companies obviously have more than one system.
** In Australia, the non-hardcore gamers among us don't play with our "[[PlayStation]]/ -2/ -3" or "Wii/GCN/N64/SNES/Game Boy/NES". We play with our "Sony" or "Nintendo". Slowly dying out as gaming becomes more ubiquitous, however.
** A 1990 poster from Nintendo describes preferred phrasing with the headline "[https://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/07/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-nintendo/ There's no such thing as a Nintendo.]"
** Ad copy guidelines dictate that the full name of the [[Play Station 3]] is "[[PlayStation]]®3 computer entertainment system" and the Xbox 360 is "Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft." It leads to some... unwieldy marketing sentences.
** The Sony [[PlayStation]] would often be referred to as the "[[PlayStation]] Game Console" in commercials for their games.
** Ad copy guidelines dictate that the full name of the [[Play StationPlayStation 3]] is "[[PlayStation]]®3 computer entertainment system" and the Xbox 360 is "Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft." It leads to some... unwieldy marketing sentences.
** Companies also get rather specific when it comes to the names of their individual components. You don't use a controller with a PlayStation console, you use a DualShock or a SixAxis; and it's not just a memory card, it's a Memory Card (8MB) (for [[PlayStation]]®2).
** That said, one exception - Nintendo decided to just call the analog attachment to the Wii Remote "the Nunchuk" because [[Ascended Fanon|most gamers used that phrase for it well before the system's release]]. ''The Videogame Style Guide'' insists that this term should ''not'' be used, contradicting both common usage and Nintendo's own style guide.
*** Not Nintendo Wii. Just Wii.
**** That said, not the DS. The [[Nintendo DS]]. Don't want it confused with any other [[DS]], after all.
* [[Transformers]] brand action figures from Hasbro don't transform; they ''convert''. Seriously. There is an official edict from Hasbro [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Trademark#Genericized_trademarks regarding printed materials]; toy packaging, advertising materials, etc. Transformers-brand action figures from Hasbro "convert" or "morph" or "change" between forms. Why, if the mere act of converting from one form to another was all it took to be a "transformer," then by gum, the term would become meaningless and applicable to any old space fantasy robot that can change between multiple configurations!
* For a while, Americans would generally refer to any cheat device as a ''[[Game Shark]]'', unless they specifically meant a Game Genie. Later, that vanished, with AR (for Action Replay) being the new generic term. Gameshark has roots in the more general use of the term "shark" to refer to cheaters (card shark, etc), but AR was pure genericization.
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** Also overt product placement was technically illegal on British-made TV in general until Ofcom (the regulatory body) relaxed the rules somewhat in 2011, meaning even if it was a paid for plug naming the product directly could land the program makers in trouble.
* At least a few years ago, every single fashion doll was a Barbie doll, regardless of whether or not it was made by Mattel. Just so long as it could wear the same clothes as a Barbie, it was a Barbie.
* The Sony [[PlayStation]] would often be referred to as the "[[PlayStation]] Game Console" in commercials for their games.
 
=== Other Products ===
* Federal Express changed its name to FedEx, and even stated in the commercial that announced the change that it was because "that's what you call us anyway".
** If asked if a customer can "Mail" a package, FedEx and UPS will say that they don't "Mail", but you can "Ship" your package. You can only send "Mail" through the United States Postal Service, Canada Post, etc. (This is not really a branding issue; US and Canadian law prohibits anyone from competing with the Postal Service / Post Office to provide mail delivery, because otherwise the USPS / Canada Post would be out of business. FedEx and UPS have to pretend to be in the totally different business of express parcel delivery.)
** A postcode for a non-US address is never called a "ZIP code". As ZIP®, ZIP+4® and "Zone Improvement Program"® are former USPS trademarks, postal administrations in other countries used other, generic terms or regional variants. The trademarks are now defunct, but the generic "postal code" or "postcode" stuck. (Except in the Philippines)
* The word "cellophane" — or more precisely, the name "Du Pont Cellophane" — was also a trade-name. Genericized trademarks are the reason why every few years the Xerox Corporation will come out with ads reminding us that "There Are Two Rs in Xerox" (the second being, of course, the ®).
* Eastman-Kodak's efforts in the early part of the 20th century to popularize its product name, with such slogans as "Take a Kodak with you", were very nearly too successful: by the 1920s people were using "kodak", with no capital, as a synonym for "snapshot". (A character in Sinclair Lewis's 1937 novel ''It Can't Happen Here'' puts "a kodak album" in her suitcase.) The company had to move swiftly, with the advertising slogan "If it isn't an Eastman, it isn't a Kodak!"
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** Similarly, in Australia, many people refer to it as "Glad wrap".
** But not in the UK, where it's generally known by the generic term "cling film".
* A coin-operated laundry facility is a "laundrette" in English but a "laundromat" in America; the latter term is an expired Westinghouse® trademark which originally referred to a specific brand or manufacturer of automatic laundry machine. Most individual local businesses still avoid the Laundromat® trademark in favour of "coin wash" or other generics, even though Westinghouse® is now effectively out of the appliance business and merely a skeleton of its former self.
* Stun guns are sometimes called "tasers", particularly in video games, even though Taser is a brand (Thomas A. Smith Electric Rifle) and a specific type of stun gun.
 
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