Fritinancy

June Linkfest

The job of a lexicographer may often be sedentary, but it’s hardly lazy, what with words being invented, repurposed, and upcycled on a daily basis. For proof, see Oxford Dictionaries Online, which recently announced some of the most recent additions to the venerable word-hoard, including baby bump, man cave, unfollow, and ZOMG. Completely new to me: schmick, an Australian slang term, dating back to the 1980s, that means “stylish.”

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Speaking of the OED, and speaking of venerable, Wordorigins.org has been posting weekly lists of  words that first appeared in a particular year. The first list, of words whose  first appearance was in 1911, includes allergen, floozy, ivory tower, and taupe, and quite a few surprises. Go to the home page to search for additional entries in the series.

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There are new words, and there are newsy words. Newswordy, a newish blog, is a collection of buzzwords in the news. One word is presented (handsomely) each day, along with a quote, a definition, and news and Twitter feeds on the subject. Yesterday’s word was pernicious: “having a harmful effect, esp. in a gradual or subtle way.”

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Over at Ironic Sans, a source of excellent why-didn’t-I-think-of-that ideas, David Friedman (no relation) proposes a new top-level Internet domain, .ugh, “for websites that can only be parody, complainy, or snarky.”

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And speaking of complainy and snarky, Paul McFedries, writing for IEEE Spectrum, presents a roster of insults for the technological age: pajamahadeen, slacktivist, meh-sayer, and more. (McFedries also runs the very enjoyable and informative Word Spy website.)

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Remember Sylvia Trench? Kissy Suzuki? Xenia Onatopp? Drew Mackie, of the Back of the Cereal Box blog, certainly does. For your edification, he provides “a list of Bond girls whose names serve as a pun, a sexual reference or something else with meaning beyond what a ‘straight’ character name does.”

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Something serious now: Pollywog, a naming and branding agency in Minneapolis, reminds us that nonprofit organizations aren’t exempt from trademark challenges. Case in point: a feud between the Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure” and a smaller, Minnesota-based group that was using “Mush for the Cure” for a sled-dog race.

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More serious stuff: “Before you start trying to come up with a name, you have to get real,” writes The Name Inspector. Here are his five hard truths of naming—essential reading for all entrepreneurs.

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Linguist Arnold Zwicky takes a semi-playful look at how foods with a “yuck factor”—such as lab-grown meat—get rebranded. By the way, if you love language—and if you’re reading this blog, I gather you have at least a passing interest in the subject—you’ll want to check out Zwicky’s great big list of language blogs and resources.

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And because I can’t allow this month to pass without linking to something Weineriffic, please enjoy Fragments from “Weiner! The Musical,” brought to you by the impresarios at McSweeney’s.

Girl Scouts Take a Bite Out of Cookie Selection

Get out your checkbooks: February is Girl Scout Cookie month. This year, the pickings will be slimmer than in the past, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported last week that “[t]o cut costs and increase revenue, a dozen Girl Scouts councils are testing out a plan to hawk just six different cookies.”

The “Super Six,” which represent the best-selling varieties, are Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos, Trefoils, Samoas, Lemon Chalet Cremes, and Tagalongs.

Some councils are saying “No, thanks” to poorer-selling varieties Thank U Berry Munch, Thanks-A-Lot, and Dulce de Leche.

 

(The Northern California council’s website still shows Thank U Berry Munch and Dulce de Leche cookies as available in 2011. Let me know if you require emergency shipments.)

 

Thanks-A-Lot cookie

I’d be inclined to axe Thank U Berry Munch and Thanks-A-Lot on the basis of their names alone: an excruciating pun and needless texting abbreviation in the former; implied sarcasm in the latter. (Yeah, thanks a lot.) On the other hand, Thanks-A-Lot shortbread-and-fudge cookies were multilingual—each one was embossed with “thank you” in English, French, Chinese*, Swahili or Spanish—and I’m all for that. Likewise, I’m rather sorry to say adiós to Dulce de Leche, because I think more kids, and adults, should be exposed to non-English cookie names.** Also, I’m partial to caramel.

 

As for Thin Mints, it’s one of the most perfect cookie names ever coined. Not only does it include a memorable internal rhyme, but it incorporates the magical thinking of “thin.” Eat these cookies, the name suggests, and you won’t gain an ounce! (Sorry to disappoint: Each Thin Mint has 40 calories, almost half of them from fat.)

 

 

Possibly because I’ve never bought or sold Girl Scout Cookies outside of California, I was surprised to learn that some of the varieties have different names in other parts of the country.

Thin Mints—by far the most popular variety, accounting for a quarter of all Girl Scout Cookie sales—are called Thin Mints everywhere. But the other varieties have alter egos. Depending on where in the United States you live, Do-Si-Dos may be called Peanut Butter Sandwich, Trefoils may be called Shortbread, Samoas may be called Caramel deLites, and Tagalongs may be called Peanut Butter Patties.

Cookie names are chosen by the two licensed bakeries that divide up the orders each year: ABC Bakers in Richmond, Virginia, which has been making Girl Scout Cookies since 1937; and Little Brownie Bakers in Louisville, Kentucky, on the job “for over 35 years.” Only ABC Bakers makes Shout Outs!, “Belgian-style caramelized cookies” with “zero grams trans fat per serving, no artificial colors, no artificial preservatives, no high fructose corn syrup and no hydrogenated oils.” Shout Outs! are stamped with inspirational verbs, like fortune cookies without the suspense.

The Girl Scouts of the USA began selling home-baked cookies in 1917 to raise money for troop activities. Into the 1930s, according to the official Girl Scout Cookies history, “Girl Scouts in different parts of the country continued to bake their own simple sugar cookies with their mothers. These cookies were packaged in wax paper bags, sealed with a sticker, and sold door to door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.” (A box of Girl Scout Cookies today costs between $3.50 and $4.) In 1934, the Greater Philadelphia council became the first Girl Scout organization to sell commercially baked cookies, and by 1937 other councils had followed suit.

Cookie box, 1951, from the Vintage Girl Scout Online Museum. Note that the cookie variety isn’t specified.

 

During World War II, because of ingredient rationing, Girl Scouts switched to selling calendars to raise money. After the war, local bakers—as many as 29 by 1948—were licensed to bake Girl Scout Cookies. There were just three varieties in 1951—Chocolate Mints (the forerunners of Thin Mints), Sandwich (see box photo, above), and Shortbread.

Over the decades, the number of licensed commercial bakeries was consolidated to the current two and the number of cookie varieties grew and fluctuated. Discontinued varieties have included Van’chos (vanilla and chocolate sandwich cookies; the name appears to be a portmanteau of vanilla and chocolate, perhaps with a little gaucho/macho/honcho thrown in), All Abouts, Juliettes (named for Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low), Double Dutch, Ice Berry Piñatas, Café Coolers, Aloha Chips, Lemon Coolers, Sugar Free Chocolate Chips, and Apple Cinnamon.

You can read about some of the retired varieties on the Slashfood blog and the Post and Courier website. Vote for your favorite discontinued varieties on the Little Brownie website.

Not a fan of commercial baked goods? Then make a cash donation to your local Girl Scout troop and bake your own cookies. The Baking Bites blog has recipes for homemade versions of many popular Girl Scout Cookie varieties, including Thin Mints, Samoas, and Do-Si-Dos.

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* There is no universal Chinese language, but my source doesn’t specify Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, etc.

** And they should learn to pronounce their names correctly. “Dulce,” the Spanish word for “sweet,” is pronounced DOOL-say, not DOHL-chay. I’m talking to you, Steve Inskeep of NPR’s Morning Edition.

Save the Waleses

If you’ve used Wikipedia recently, you’ve seen a banner that looked something like this:

 

Give generously! Otherwise, you might receive a visit from one of Jimmy’s less patient relatives.

 

Created by Seoul Brother.

Via @WilliamBeutler and @Gruber.

“That Name Is So Bad, It Feels Like a Scam from Nigeria”

Beginning at 3:31, Helen Hunt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and other entertainers critique “American Jewish World Service” and its acronym, AJWS.

 

 

For a good cause, to be sure.

Hat tip: Bobbie Altman.

Portmant-uh-oh

Among English speakers, there seems to be an irresistible, universal urge to coin words through blending word parts—to create what Lewis Carroll called portmanteau words. (Chortle, frabjous, and galumph are a few of Carroll’s famous portmanteaus.) But popular as they are, portmanteaus fail much more frequently than they succeed. In his book Predicting New Words, Allan Metcalf—the executive director of the American Dialect Society—estimates that only 5 percent of successful new words are blends. For every winner like brunch or smog there are countless losers like linner (coined from lunch plus dinner) and plerk (play plus work).

Those daunting odds don’t seem to be much of a deterrent, though, especially among novice name developers. Perhaps that’s because effective portmanteaus pack such a wallop. Consider Freakonomics, Edutopia, or Gymini. Each name clearly communicates two meanings while being easy to pronounce and fun to say.

Beware, though: hitting the target requires a practiced ear and semantic savvy. Without those abilities, you’re likely to miss by a mile—as do these less-than-effective portmanteau names that I’ve noticed recently.

Saving the World, One Slogan at a Time

Some years ago I did some consulting for a regional office of the American Cancer Society, which raises money for cancer research and education. The society’s logo, then as now, was a stylized caduceus—a short winged rod entwined by two serpents—that in modern times has been appropriated as a symbol of the medical profession. The caduceus was originally associated with Hermes, the Greek god of messengers, thieves, travelers, and border crossings—but not of medicine. The traditional medical symbol in ancient times was the rod of Asclepius: a staff entwined by a single serpent. Asclepius, a son of Apollo, was associated with medicine and healing.

Someone at the American Cancer Society evidently looked at the caduceus and saw not a rod or a staff but a weapon—a sword, to be specific. And from that mistaken observation, based on a mistaken conflation of two Greek symbols, came the national organization’s slogan: “There’s Nothing Mightier Than the Sword.” 

My consulting work for the society had nothing to do with slogan development, but I couldn’t help myself. That slogan really, really bothered me.

I remember a conversation—perplexed on my end, earnest on the client’s end—about the logic of this phrase. The pen! I had to restrain myself from shouting. The pen is mightier than the sword!* “No, no,” the client said soothingly. “The sword really is the mightiest!”

Really? Besides the pen, I can think of several things that are mightier than the sword: the flamethrower, the catapult, the poison gas, the rocket grenade, and the thermonuclear device. Just for starters.

And, come to think, cancer itself often proves to be mightier than the sword, if by “sword” you mean “scalpel” and if by “cancer” you mean “war.”

Well, that was then. My consulting work went smoothly enough. Years passed. And now I see that the ACS has a different slogan: “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays.” A little confusing out of context, and probably disappointing to your local six-year-old, but definitely a step up from that mighty sword.

For my part, I’m working now with a different medical organization on naming and slogan development, so I’ve been thinking once again about the challenges of nonprofit branding. In a stroke of timely good fortune, last weekend I discovered Nancy E. Schwartz’s nonprofit-marketing blog, Getting Attention, which conducts an annual Nonprofit Tagline Awards contest. (Hat tip to my Twitter pal The Slogan Shop.) You can read about the 2009 winners here and download the free 121-page report about them here. And go here to vote for the most effective slogans of 2010.

The slogans on this year’s ballot have been winnowed down from more than 2,700 entrants. About the original field, Nancy Schwartz writes: 

I have to tell you that although some of the taglines entered work well (roughly 30%), most do not. The reasons why are varied, from “they make no sense” to “they make sense, but don’t make an impact.” Whatever the reason, the end result is a highly used message that’s not doing its job for your organization.

Only a 30 percent success rate? Surely we can do better. In her 2009 report, Schwartz offers 10 “have-tos” for creating powerful taglines. They include “Must convey your nonprofit’s or program’s impact or value,” “Must be authentic,” “Must be broadly and easily accessible and memorable, avoiding jargon and acronyms,” and “Must be specific to your organization, not easily used by another nonprofit reaching out to the same audiences.” That last point is especially significant: Too many of this year’s entrants (yes, even the finalists) are interchangeable.

On the bright side, only one tagline finalist includes the word “passion.” An encouraging sign!

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About the title of this post: “Saving the X, One Y at a Time” is a slogan snowclone, or sloganclone. Read more about this slogan formula and others in my 2007 post, “Snowclones with a Twist.”

* “The pen is mightier than the sword” was coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the Victorian novelist who is also famous for the opening line “It was a dark and stormy night.” There’s an annual bad-writing contest named in honor of Bulwer-Lytton.

 

Present Perfect

It's easy to find examples of bad branding. Much rarer are examples of brands that get it right. Which is why I applaud Changing the Present, a brand that scores close to a perfect 10. What's even more impressive is that Changing the Present is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In my experience, charities frequently fail to understand and implement good branding practices, usually because their staffs worry that "good design and communication" equates with "needless expense." Not so. Take a look at how Changing the Present does it:

Concept: Changing the Present didn't invent the "choose how you donate" model; Kiva and DonorsChoose, among others, use it too. Changing the Present is implementing it in a more global and comprehensive manner that gives donors plenty of options. It's a smart strategy that acknowledges donors' desire to control their charitable donations and see tangible results.

Name: An elegantly intuitive double entendre. Changing the Present allows donors to give gifts that make a difference: by changing the nature of gift giving—allowing people to donate medical supplies, Internet access, livestock, safe water— it's changing the way people live now. Some institutions resist "long" names; personally, I think this three-word name is exactly right: it's memorable and pronounceable and requires less explaining than, say, "Kiva."

Tagline: "The thought that counts" takes a cliché no one feels sincere uttering—"It's the thought that counts"—and by eliminating one word makes it a powerful statement of fact. When you donate through Changing the Present, your thought truly counts toward improving lives.

Logo: Clear, well balanced, meaningful. Note how the logo doesn't just say change, it embodies change through the shift from blue to green. The stylized bow on the package suggests the X on a ballot: you're using your gift as a vote.

Advertising: I learned about Changing the Present through a commercial I saw on the basic-cable channel TLC. The ad appropriates all the tropes of luxury-gift marketing: the unctuous voiceover, the soft-focus camerawork, the sentimental "because you love her" message. Maybe he's going to give her a car, you think. Or a diamond ring. And the denouement? As they say at MasterCard: priceless. (Watch the two CTP commercials here.)

Domain: Let's say you're impressed, as I was, by the CTP commercial but remember the organization's name as Change the Present instead of Changing the Present. Do you get a 404 error message when you type "ChangeThePresent.org" into your browser? You do not. You get a variation of the Changing the Present home page, with videos of the two TV commercials. I can't overemphasize how smart it is of Changing the Present to anticipate this mistake and turn it into an opportunity; too few website owners do it. Registering the additional domain (or maybe multiple domains) is cheap and easy. The tough part, the part many organizations don't bother with, is putting yourself in your customer's shoes and asking what might go wrong. And then making it right.

Web design and copy: The site is easy to use and a pleasure to read. You can choose the way you want to give: by cause, type of gift (wedding, teens, Valentine's Day), or price range. Photos have been chosen for maximum meaning; they aren't simply random space-fillers or spots of color. There's enough white space to convey a sense of calm but not so much that the design looks unbalanced. Instead of forcing all the copy to fit within artificial word limits, the designer has allowed for clickthroughs that provide all the information you need to make an informed decision.

I tried hard to find fault with Changing the Present's brand implementation and found only this (and it's pathetically nerdy, I know): I'd like to see a more careful and consistent use of hyphens in compound adjectives such as "solar-powered." But really, that's it.

There's clearly a lot of brainpower and clout behind Changing the Present. And a ton of brand savvy, too. Changing the Present is partnering with WellGood LLC, a marketing and consulting agency that applies business principles to philanthropy. That's also the premise of a new book by Dan Pallotta, Uncharitable, and I'm guessing it's the direction many nonprofits will be taking. (Listen to an interview with Pallotta here.) In the case of Changing the Present, the strategy clearly works. Well done and bravo.

Saddest Naming Opportunity of the Century

The nonprofit, nonpartisan National Environmental Trust is sponsoring a contest to rename Montana's Glacier National Park. The park was established in 1910 and has since lost most of its glaciers. If current climate trends continue, by 2030 it will have none at all.

If a glacier melts in the park, can the park still be called Glacier? I think not. So ... Dry Ice Park? Little Trickle Park? Où Sont les Neiges d'Antan Park?

I believe Kalahari and Sahara are already taken.

Deadline is June 11. Multiple entries encouraged. The winner gets a $250 gift certificate from outdoor gear retailer REI.

Via Popwink.

What I've Been Up To

I've been working on a long-overdue update of my web site. In the meantime, for those of you who care, here are some of the projects I've recently completed:

• All new content for the Children's Fairyland web site. Fairyland is that rare thing: a relevant anachronism. It opened in 1950 on the shores of Oakland's Lake Merritt as a storybook theme park for young children, and for 57 years has successfully resisted the lure of thrill rides, arcade games, and corporate sponsorship. (Walt Disney visited the park the year it opened and copied many of its features when he created Disneyland.) At Fairyland, admission is only $6 and everything is kid-scale and kid-friendly. It has no roller coasters, but it does have a little library hut and the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States. It has a children's theater program, a pair of rabbits, a llama, and an elderly pony. And it has lots of stuff that adults find corny and little kids absolutely adore--like Magic Keys that operate talking Storybook Boxes and a big elf statue that blows bubbles. Little kids love those bubbles. Fairyland is a wonderful place to visit, but its web site wasn't. It was awkwardly written and confusing to navigate, and it didn't convey the spirit of the place. So I set about creating a new voice, stories, and site architecture. I interviewed more than a dozen people involved with Fairyland, from 79-year-old puppetmaster Lewis Mahlmann, who's worked with the park for 40 years, to 9-year-old Anthony Sung, who played a flying monkey in Fairyland's 2005 production of "The Wizard of Oz." And I spent lots and lots of time with C.J. Hirschfield, Fairyland's dedicated and inspirational executive director. Then I persuaded my friend Susan Bercu, a gifted designer and illustrator, to create templates for the site design. Susan used to teach preschool; she really got the spirit of Fairyland. But I'm biased. See for yourself.
• A new name for a Silicon Valley restart-up (formerly Connex Technology): BrightScale. The company makes the chip arrays that make high-definition TV look good across a range of international standards. The new name plays on the optical term gray scale, a black-to-white spectrum. This was my third naming project with CEO Dave Corbin--he gets around--and as usual, he was a dream client: clear, attentive, and decisive. The BrightScale.com URL was taken but not developed; I helped negotiate a smooth domain transfer. My deep gratitude to genius graphic designer Mark Landkamer, who brought the identity and web site to life.
• Name development for TRIA, the first clinically proven laser hair-removal device for home use. Trademarked as both a medical device and a beauty product, the name had to suggest skin beauty, femininity, strength, freedom, modernity, elegance, and light. The coined word TRIA (pronounced TREE-ah) combines a crisp, efficient-sounding consonant blend with an open, feminine suffix; the word suggests "trim" and "ray" and also hints at the three-point contact area of the device. I also consulted on the tagline, "The Enlightened Solution," and on the URL, TriaBeauty.com.
• Web content for Central Station, a multifaceted new real estate development on the site of a historic West Oakland railroad terminal. My client was Holliday Development, which has worked for years with community and government groups to move the development forward. I wrote all content, including descriptions of projects being developed by companies other than Holliday. Very nice site design by LStudio.
• Name development for New Routes to Community Health, a nonprofit venture that creates multimedia programs to encourage new U.S. immigrants to improve their health status. Among other constraints, the new name couldn't use the words "immigrant," "assimilation," or "new American." I worked with a client team spread across three time zones and presented the names via conference call. The chosen name connects strongly to the team's previous successful project, Sound Partners for Community Health, while also suggesting the immigrant journey and--through homophonic association--the "new roots" immigrants are putting down in their adopted homeland.

More news after it happens.