Thursday, April 28, 2016

Xerox that

Xerox that. Copy that. Do you understand?

All the same. Xerox that is of my making. Copy that originated as radio slang for messages between control towers and/or aircraft.

Xerox maintains copyright of the name Xerox and prefers people call their copies, photocopies not xeroxes. When you go to your Hewlett Packard copy machine, you should not say "I'm going to be back soon after I xerox these papers". You should say "I'm going to be back soon after I copy these papers." Trademark hell for sure. Free advertisement but your brand disappears for everyone to use to advertise their brand.

The real topic of this post is when brand names become terms for a product is usually when there is a verb using the word.

Like, google "your question".

Or,

Velcro

Taser - that smarts

Cellophane - Brits say clingfilm

Rollerblade

Mace

Hulahoop

Band Aid

Chlorox


Then there is using the brand name as the noun of the object

Kleenex

Scotch tape

Crockpot

Tampon

Dumpster

Jacuzzi


All of the brands above have their brand name or trademark copyright protected. So don't invent a product and plan to call it any of those things.


In my home, we call a popular object buttons. We lose our buttons. We ask each other if they know where the buttons are.

Some brands that have long become generic are

zip code

aspirin

kerosene

mimeograph

dry ice

escalator

heroin

lanolin

thermos

trampoline

videotape - soon to be obsolete


Anyway, buttons is what we call our remote control. Now what do you call the small cardboard tube at the center of a toilet paper roll or the ends of a loaf of bread?








11 comments:

  1. l call ends of bread heels. this was fun to read!
    Betty

    ReplyDelete
  2. The cat calls the toilet paper tube something that won't shred, get a new roll. Kinda wordy, I know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like Alex's comment! I don't think I have a name for either of those things!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't call them anything and throw them away. The ends of the bread are the heel.

    ReplyDelete
  5. my momma was from Scottsboro Alabama.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Creative post! The t.p. tube is the "roller" and the ends of a bread loaf are "heels". I have Southern (U.S.) roots.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Interesting how brand names can impose such influences. Thoughtful take Ann!

    Hank

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hand me a kleenex, we're down to the heels. They need a new roll in that zip code!

    ReplyDelete

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