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Another adjective-turned-noun in an ad campaign! This one, Hooters’ “Step into Awesome,” was featured yesterday on AdFreak:
Hooters and its ilk are known as “breastaurants.” You’re welcome.
In response, and in honor of National Grammar Day – next Monday, March 4* – I submitted this haiku to Editor Mark’s Tweeted Haiku Contest:
“Step into awesome,”
says Hooters: just more proof
that nounifying’s hot.
So far, mine looks to be the only grammar haiku about a brand. True to my school, I am.
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Spotted at Costco:
Qookies are gluten-free cookies made by TruRoots, “inspired by tradition and using recipes perfected by artisanal bakers.” The ingredients list does mention quinoa, so maybe that explains the Q. But why not Quookies?
True, the U-less spelling lends itself to a kooky pairing of Qookies and Qream.
It’s not perfume. It’s liqueur.
For the full scoop on Qream – that’s “Qream with a Q,” “a truly elegant experience for the modern day queen and her court of friends” that’s “created by” rapper/producer/fashion designer Pharrell Williams – get yourself over to The Hairpin. Also check out this story about the $5 million Qream lawsuit.
More Q names here.
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“This nouning of adjectives thing is really getting out of control,” Ben Yagoda tweeted earlier this month. As evidence, he attached this photo:
I did a little sleuthing and discovered the perpetrator of “Just Add Good”: Chobani Greek yogurt, which was using the slogan throughout its website.
By the way, although Chobani calls its product “Greek yogurt,” the company was founded by a Turk, Hamdi Ulukaya, who lives in upstate New York near one of the company’s plants. According to the Wikipedia entry, Chobani comes from the Turkish-via-Persian word for “shepherd,” chob-ban (literally, “he who carries a stick”). An archived Chobani FAQ claims chobani is a Greek word. I don’t know any of those languages well enough to weigh in.
About a week ago Chobani switched from “Just Add Good” to a new slogan that uses “real” as a noun:
But there’s still plenty of nounish good to go around. Not to mention nounish awesome. Naked Juice billboards all over the Bay Area proclaim that the product has “1 lb. of awesome in every bottle,” which makes it “worth its weight in good.”
The slogan plays on the familiar idiom “worth its weight in gold.”
Naked Juice is based in Monrovia (Los Angeles County). The company was founded in 1983; the juice was originally sold “towel to towel on the beaches of Santa Monica, Calif.”
During Sunday’s Oscars broadcast I saw back-to-back ads with nounified good. In both of them, good is something that goes. Here’s “Get Your Good Going” from Blue Diamond Almonds:
[UPDATE: Video disabled.]
The voiceover says:
Good is in every Blue Diamond Almond.
From Whole Natural to Wasabi and Soy Sauce.
Good is a catalyst. Good is contagious.
It’s a wonderful feeling. A magical feeling.
And once it gets going, there’s no stopping what you can do.
New York Life, the biggest life-insurance company in the U.S., wants us to “Keep Good Going,” as in “It takes all kinds of good to make a family.”
[UPDATE: Videos no longer embeddable, but you can see new ones at the Keep Good Going link.]
Good is, of course, a legitimate noun as well as an adjective: “the greater good”; “packaged goods”; “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” But Chobani, Naked Juice, Blue Diamond, and New York Life want us to think of good as a nounified adjective, the better to force an association with originality and playfulness – or simply to make us stop and pay attention.
This part-of-speech switching, also known as anthimeria, has become an established feature of contemporary advertising. If the trend continues, it’s possible to envision a future in which all adjectives have become nouns, all nouns have become verbs, and every adverb has been pressed into service as the name of a startup.
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Behindativeness: The exaggerated rear shape created by a large dress bustle: “That lady has got a deal of behindativeness.” – Passing English of the Victorian Era, a Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang and Phrase, by J. Redding Ware, published in London in 1909.
Bustled ladies with a deal of behindativeness, 1885-1886. From Digital Changeling.
You could easily pass several delighted hours in the company of Passing English of the Victorian Era, which is reproduced in its entirety at the Public Domain Review, a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation. (Other worthy time-wasters on the site include a 1912 illuminated version of Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur, a 1888 edition of Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, and Dennison’s Bogie Book for Halloween, from 1920.) The dictionary’s introduction sets a lofty tone: “‘Passing English’ ripples from countless sources, forming a river of new language which has its tide and its ebb, while its current brings down new ideas and carries away those that have dribbled out of fashion.” (“Passing” here means “ephemeral,” I think.) But the contents are more anecdotal than scholarly; the entry for chortle, for example, neglects to mention that Lewis Carroll coined the word in Through the Looking-Glass (1872).
But that’s a tiny quibble. The offhandedness of the dictionary is one of its many pleasures. Here I learned, for example, that the following words and phrases were Americanisms still regarded in early 20th-century England as rustic novelties: bark up the wrong tree, have an axe to grind, filibuster, fuss (“a dispute without serious consequences”) cold snap, lobby (the political verb), guess (“think”), thusly (introduced by humorists in the 1860s), tickle to death (“to delight in the extreme”), and enthuse (“not yet accepted in England,” sniffs Mr. Ware; the OED still calls it “an ignorant back-formation”). Americans of the Victorian era were also fond of enthuzimizzy to mean “enthusiasm,” and they liked to affix ker- to many words to imply movement: kerwallop, kerslap, kerflummox, kerbang. (I can’t help wondering whether the more recent ka-ching! – the sound of a cash register – owes something to this tradition.)
Passing English is full of synonyms and euphemisms for drinking: play camels, wash one’s neck, colour the meerschaum, and tickle one’s innards all meant “to get drunk.” So did N.Y.D., short for the euphemistic “not yet diagnosed.” Going to see a man meant “going to get a drink,” while going to see a dawg meant going to see a woman “whose social position may be assumed by her association with ‘dawg’.” But going to see a man about a dog is sadly omitted, even though it dates back to the 1860s.
If you need proof that initialisms weren’t born in the Age of Texting, look no further. To our Victorian forebears an N.N. was a “necessary nuisance” (that is, a husband), K.A.B.G.N.A.L.S. was reverse-spelled “back slang,” P.C. meant not “politically correct” but “poor classes,” R.M.D. was “ready money down,” and X.X. meant “double excellent.” I’m particularly fond of the abbreviation N.F., which stood for “no fool.”
As for the ladies’ bustle depicted above, it isn’t defined in Passing English, presumably because every reader would have understood it. The word’s origins are murky: it may come from German Buschel (a bunch or pad) or from another sense of bustle: a rustling motion.
Slightly related: this 2012 post about uppertendom.
(Hat tip for the Passing English link: The Hairpin.)
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A scant two days after publishing a post about the “Jacked” naming trend I learned about yet another jacked-up brand name.
Cracker Jack’D image from Gawker.
I’m a little late to this party: the Cracker Jack’D brand extension was announced last November by parent company Frito-Lay and started appearing in stores in December. The jacked ingredient in Cracker Jack’D is caffeine: the equivalent of a cup of coffee in every two-ounce bag, according to The Impulsive Buy. The company says Cracker Jack’D is intended only for adult consumers, and of course that stern warning will be 100 percent effective.
Also jacked up: the calorie count. Each wee bag contains about 450 calories (and 680 milligrams of sodium, if you’re counting). Original Cracker Jack has 120 calories per four-ounce “serving” and 70 mg of sodium.
(Right about now might be a good time for you to take a break and read “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,” the compelling cover story of the February 24 New York Times Magazine. It’s a long excerpt from Michael Moss’s new book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, and it contains revelations like this one: a serving of Yoplait brand yogurt contains twice as much sugar as a serving of marshmallow-centric Lucky Charms breakfast cereal.)
I can’t explain the apostrophe or the capitalized D in the Cracker Jack’D name. They may be there to preserve the integrity (so to speak) of the original Cracker Jack name, to look old-timey and folksy (like Amaz’n Asian Chik’n and Chop’t), or because some designer thought they looked cool. Less cool is the official spelling: Cracker Jack®’D.
Cracker Jack is one of the oldest surviving food brands in America; Andrew F. Smith, author of The Encyclopedia of Junk Food and Fast Food, calls it “America’s first junk food.” A version of the caramel-corn-and-peanut mix was introduced at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, and the first batch of branded Cracker Jack was produced in 1896. According to company lore, an enthusiastic sampler gave the brand its name when he exclaimed, “That’s crackerjack!” The “prize in every box” was introduced in 1912; the brand mascots, Sailor Joe and his dog Bingo, first appeared in 1918.
The Cracker Jack company was family owned until 1964, when it was sold to Borden. Borden sold the brand to Frito-Lay in 1997.
There are no prizes inside packages of Cracker Jack’D (get over it; you’re a grownup!). Flavors include Cocoa Java, Vanilla Mocha, Salted Caramel, Cheddar BBQ, and the suspiciously kid-friendly-sounding PB and Chocolate.
By the way, the original brand name is always singular: Cracker Jack. That’s why it rhymes with “…if I never get back.”
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Side Effects, the new film from Steven Soderbergh that’s now in theaters, is a twisty thriller, more gris than noir, in which almost every character is taking mood-adjusting prescription drugs. Beta blockers, Adderall, Paxil, Effexor, Celexa, Zoloft, Wellbutrin—in the film, these real-world drugs are casually discussed at cocktail parties and liberally dispensed by doctors for pre-interview jitters, anxiety, the blues, you name it. (Another recent release, Silver Linings Playbook, also features a memorable conversation about name-brand meds. Is this the dawn of Cinema Pharma?)
The pivotal pill in Side Effects, however, is an invented one. “Ablixa” (generic name “alipazone”) is introduced as an antidepressant with an upbeat slogan—“Take Back Tomorrow”—and some worrisome side effects that include confusion, suicidal thoughts, and sleepwalking (and also, as it turns out, sleep-table-setting, sleep-loud-music-playing, and sleep-vegetable-slicing).
To say anything more about the plot would spoil the pleasures of this grim yet exhilarating movie, so I’ll stick to the Ablixa story, which contains some surprises of its own.
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And what’s in it for me?
That’s what I asked when I encountered Mycestro. I saw it as a three-syllable name, because my brain picked out “my” before it performed any further analysis. I was stumped by “cestro,” though. Ancestor? Incest?
Even reading in TechCrunch that Mycestro is a “3D mouse for your fingertips that you’ll look funny using” didn’t help. Not until I listened to the inventor, Nick Mastandrea, narrate a Kickstarter video did I realize that Mycestro is a misspelled portmanteau of mice and maestro. It’s meant to be parsed myce-stro and pronounced maestro. The reasoning, TechCrunch says, is that when you use the device “it looks like you’re conducting your own private orchestra.”
An intriguing image, and I wish Mr. Mastandrea had explored it further instead of falling in love with that misleading, wince-inducing portmanteau.
As I’ve said many times, portmanteau names rarely succeed (see Infegy, Blellow, Shpock, Rapiscan, InnoCentive, Smorn, and others). Mycestro joins the Hall of Failed Portmanteaus – the Halfaport – with several strikes against it: We rarely speak of computer mice in the plural, the weird myce spelling suggests something mushroomy, and the ce-st combination in the middle of the word confounds the tongue. And, as I’ve already noted, it’s very difficult to un-see the first-person possessive pronoun in the first syllable.
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Available in Enchilada Supreme (pictured) and Smoky Chipotle BBQ.
From a review at The Impulsive Buy:
[W]hat was I to think about Doritos introducing the “JACKED” sub-line (I feel strongly it should be all caps) that boasts of Bigger, Bolder, Thicker chips? Should I be enthused, or worried? Was I like a smoker getting excited because his Camels would now contain triple the nicotine? And why “JACKED,” anyway? Were they going to contain Monterey or Cheddar Jack cheese (no), or was this just a doomed marketing attempt to seem appropriately “street” (almost certainly)?
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“Jacked: Auto Theft Task Force”
The logo for this reality show on A&E appears to have been carved into a car jack.
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“Death After Using Jack3d Shows Gap in Regulation” – New York Times, February 13, 2013:
Pronounced Jacked, the powder contains a stimulant that marketers say increases strength, speed and endurance. …
Yet, last April, federal health regulators issued a warning that the stimulant — called dimethylamylamine, or DMAA — frequently raises blood pressure and heart rate, and could lead to heart attacks. In December 2011, after the deaths of two soldiers who had used Jack3d, the Defense Department removed all products containing DMAA from stores on military bases, including more than 100 GNC shops.
Now the parents of Michael L. Sparling, one of the soldiers who died, have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against USPlabs, the developer and marketer of Jack3d, and GNC, the store where he bought it.
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[Verbatim, it should go without saying.]
1. Verb: Past tense
Origin from ‘hijacked’: as the past-progressive meaning stolen in a violent fashion.
Commonly refers to robbery, theft, misuse, seizure, possesion.
2. Adjective
Well muscled, iron-bound, pumped.1. “Yo, I got up to go to the bathroom and some jerk jacked my seat”
or
“Yesterday I jacked a pack of gum from the mall.”
2. “That weightlifter sure is jacked. Too bad he’s on steroids.”
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It appears to be Opposite Week at TypePad, the publisher of this blog: the spam filter has been trapping legitimate comments and allowing hundreds of spam comments to pass through. As a result, I’ve missed a couple of legitimate comments. I’ve combed through the dross and hope I’ve located all the gold; if I’ve missed your comment, please let me know.
Meanwhile, I’ve added another level of security: the annoying but useful verification code. Please don’t let it deter you from leaving a comment; I promise I’ll loosen the reins when TypePad fixes the problem.
For your amusement, here are some of the choicest spam comments that reached my in-box:
All I hear is often a bunch of whining about something that you could fix when you werent too busy looking for attention.
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If you spiel golf or lawn tennis, you peril excruciation from average brass.
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The next time I read a blog, I hope it doesnt disappoint me as considerably as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, but I truly thought youd have some thing intriguing to say. [Posted by “cheapnfljerseys168.”]
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Haystack is a domain-renowned pain in the neck therapist.
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She gazed rather long at him, without any answer, and, in spite of the shadow in which he was standing, she saw (or fancied she saw) the expression [URL of a “cheap designer handbags” site inserted here] both of his face and his eyes.
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This impression once in a while the privileged of your workforce begins to front like lousy oranges.
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If annoyance becomes stern when doing one or more of these of sentence, it may admit gibbousness.
And my favorite:
I cant believe youre not a lot more popular simply because you surely have the gift.
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Doxing: “The practice of investigating and revealing a target subject’s personally identifiable information, such as home address, workplace information and credit card numbers, without consent.” (Source: Know Your Meme.) From docs (short for documents). Sometimes spelled doxxing.
From “Reddit’s Doxxing Paradox,” a February 4 post on the legal blog Popehat:
You might recall that popular social media site Reddit doesn’t like doxxing — that is, the public identification of online speakers and revelation of their personal information. Gawker’s public identification of vile Reddit creeper and troll Violentacrez was controversial to many Redditors, condemned by Reddit administrators, and has led to some Reddit mods engaging in a long-term ban of links to Gawker media sites.
So — Reddit’s culture is strongly against doxxing. Right?
Well — sort of.
Doxing was also in the news this month in connection with security breaches at the Federal Reserve and Department of Energy in which personal details about employees and contractors were grabbed. “Such an information leak, known as doxing, is a popular way among hacktivists to embarrass a target,” reported the information-technology publication EWeek.
According to the Know Your Meme entry, “doxing” was originally used in the early 2000s by computer hackers involved with the distribution of pirated software. (Urban Dictionary’s earliest entry is dated October 6, 2003.) In the late 2000s, “it grew into a harassment tactic used by members of Anonymous” – a loosely organized hacktivist group – during operations against the white nationalist Hal Turner, the Church of Scientology, and other targets.
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