Bread Brands and Phonetics

Today at the grocery store I came across a brand of bread of which I had never before seen or heard.

My first thought upon seeing the bread was, "who, on God's green earth, would name their bread after sleazy woman?"

bim·bo 
n. pl. bim·bos
1. Slang A woman regarded as vacuous or as having an exaggerated interest in her sexual appeal.
2. Slang A vacuous person: "a male bimbo ... who even has to be tutored ... in the clichés that comprise the basic interview" (George F. Will).
bimbo
n. pl. -bos, -boes
1. an attractive but empty-headed young woman
2. a fellow; person esp a foolish one
The Free Dictionary

It wasn't until I turned the loaf over that I realized the brand's first vowel is meant to be pronounced as /i:/ and not /I/.

When I did a bit of research, I was surprised to see that Bimbo Bakeries USA owns brands that include: Arnold, Boboli, Entenmann's, Sara Lee, Thomas' and more.

How had I never heard of Bimbo Bakeries if they own all of these brands that I purchase on a regular basis?

Their website's history link provides the answer; it wasn't until the 2000s that they began acquiring other companies that owned the brands with which I am familiar in Michigan.

In all fairness, the word bimbo does have a different definition and pronunciation in Italy where the parent company originated.

bimbo
n. Italy,
"Bimbo" is a common nice word, used as a diminutive of (male) child. Child = Bambino = Bimbo.

For US marketing purposes, however, I would think the company would use a different name for their bakery products.

The Bitches and Bastards of Beer Branding

Apparently, a Fat Bastard and a Dirty Bitch do not a Dirty Bastard make, at least not in Alabama.

According to the May 4, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board banned the sale of Dirty Bastard Beer "to keep dirty pictures and dirty words away from children." However, the Board continues to allow the sale of Fat Bastard wine and Dirty Bitch beer.

Interesting, though not entirely accurate. It is actually called Raging Bitch beer.

Either way, the linguistic hypocrisy is evident.

Image credits: 1, 2 and 3.

The Language of "X"

Fritinancy brought Lexicon Blog's post Understanding The “X” Factor to my attention through her October Linkfest.

It is a an informative and interesting post; however, I am surprised that a post written by Dr. Will Leben, Lexicon Director of Linguistics, neglected to mention that the letter "X" is used to signify an arbitrary lexical category in Chomsky's X-Bar Theory.

Image credits.

Branding With Portmanteaus

According to the brand name and tagline in this advertisement -
camel toe + camouflage = the original visual privacy undergarment.

Creative portmanteau for sure, though I am still not sure why anyone would choose to wear such tight-fitting clothes in public.

A post on Fritinancy brought this brand name to my attention.

Reader's Favorites - Zipper Falls Prey to Genericide

A zipper by any other name...is still a zipper. When the word zipper was first trademarked it was considered a proper noun that was capitalized, it was only through repeated usage that the word zipper became a generic name for any product that resembled and performed the same function as a zipper. The term genericide was coined to describe the process by which a trademarked or brand name becomes a generic name for the product category. According to the website WordSpy, the first recorded use of the word genericide was in an article in Legal Times in 1983.


Some other familiar brand names that have suffered from genericide include: aspirin, escalator, granola, heroin, yo-yo and linoleum. Aditionally, the San Fransisco Examiner lists the following brand names as endangered (though I would argue that some of them have already fallen prey to genericide): Band-Aid, Xerox, Realtor, Jeep, Rollerblade and Coke.

Along with Zippers, Kleenex and Speedo Fall Prey to Genericide

The June 30th Newsweek had an article about Speedo's LZR suit. If you have not heard about it yet, it is the suit that is helping swimmers break a multitude of records. The article notes that Speedo is the number 1 swim brand in the world and reinforces this statistic by quoting analyst Marshal Cohen, "Speedo is the Kleenex of swimwear." I really got a kick out of seeing this quote as it fit right in with my previous post about brand name genericide (genericide being the process by which a trademarked or brand name becomes a generic name for the product category). While Kleenex was not on the list in my original post, a reader commented that it should have been and I fully agree. And certainly Speedo should be added to the list as the generic name for competitive swimwear and tank suits (which I grew up calling banana hammocks, ha ha).

Zipper Falls Prey to Genericide

A zipper by any other name...is still a zipper. When the word zipper was first trademarked it was considered a proper noun that was capitalized, it was only through repeated usage that the word zipper became a generic name for any product that resembled and performed the same function as a zipper. The term genericide was coined to describe the process by which a trademarked or brand name becomes a generic name for the product category. According to the website WordSpy, the first recorded use of the word genericide was in an article in Legal Times in 1983.

Some other familiar brand names that have suffered from genericide include: aspirin, escalator, granola, heroin, yo-yo and linoleum. Aditionally, the San Fransisco Examiner lists the following brand names as endangered (though I would argue that some of them have already fallen prey to genericide): Band-Aid, Xerox, Realtor, Jeep, Rollerblade and Coke.