Six Flags Over Mid-America was/is in St. Louis (well, in the St. Louis area), and it had its own region-appropriate six flags.
I think California could only claim four flags: Spain, Mexico, California Republic and USA. Of course there were many indigenous cultures that didn’t have flags.
If they want to stretch it, Russia, too. If only because of the Russian River…
Wikipedia tells me that Fort Ross was a Russian outpost during the Spanish and Mexican era so I say it counts.
I believe Exxon was just Esso…which phonetically is, S O, which are the initials for Standard Oil, which was the large former company that was broken up into 30+ companies (Enco being another one of those). So Esso is kind of claiming that they’re the “real” standard oil company of the many that were broken up (they kinda were). The other spinoffs didn’t like that, neither did the courts, and therefore they had to change it to Exxon as the brand name Esso was too close to Standard Oil.
I guess that didn’t apply in Canada.
Cecil deconstructs the tortured rationalization behind Six Flags over Mid-America. The truth is that once the first Six Flags (over Texas) was a success, all the parks were going to be called Six Flags whether they had ever had one flag or ten flying over them.
Kentucky Fried Chicken officially rebranded as KFC, which is what everyone called it. Presumably it was an acknowledgement that there was no actual chicken in its dishes. Oddly, Wikipedia says that in Australia they have gone back to Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Canada’s Labatt Blue beer was originally “Labatt Pilsener.” It had a label with blue letters and a blue border, and people just started calling it “Labatt Blue,” likely to differentiate it from Labatt 50 Ale (green and gold) and Labatt IPA (red and white). Labatt got with the program, and called its Pilsener what everybody else did: Blue. Which it remains to this day, on its labels and in advertising.
Molson Export Ale faced the same challenge. It’s name was a mouthful, and most people just called it “Ex.” Molson didn’t change the name of the beer on the labels, but it did use “Ex” in its advertising.
Then, there is “Old Style Pilsner,” to give it its full name. First brewed by Fritz Sick in Lethbridge, Alberta, the Pilsner brand is now owned by Molson. That’s fine, but the labels have always been “busy,” with trains, cars, aircraft, monks, the brewery, and for some crazy reason, bunnies. It became a game, counting how many bunnies are on the label. (Hint: there’s only one; if you see more than one, you’ve had too much.) Molson has yet to embrace this, except perhaps to make a bunny more prominent on labels and cases, but the Bunny = Pilsner connection continues. I can walk into any sports bar in Alberta and ask for a “Bunny Beer,” and get a pint of Old Style Pilsner.
Likely not. As far as I am aware, Esso stations existed coast-to-coast in Canada. There were no Encos or Standards or whatever else my Dad’s Esso credit card said that it would be honoured at. As far as I am aware, the Essos in Canada were licensed through Imperial Oil Inc., which I guess was the Canadian trademark owner of Esso in Canada, and it was likely easier to just have Essos rather than a bunch of unfamiliar American brands.
It’s because “fried” is a dirty word.
Does NyQuil qualify? My freshman year of college we were given little kits with stuff like razors, toothbrushes, etc. One of the items was a dose of the new (at the time) Vicks night time cough reliever, or something like that, I can’t remember the exact name. We all just called it “Night quil.” A few years later it started being marketed as NyQuil.
I’m not sure when you were a freshman- but NyQuil has been around since the late 60s and I can’t imagine what “original name” would lead to “Nyquil” - you can see how Kentucky Fried Chicken turns into KFC or “Coca Cola” turns into “Coke” but what turns into NyQuil? Are you sure it wasn’t DayQuil (which came later) that started out with a different name? Because I can see how a daytime product from the same company that sells Nyquil would popularly be called “Dayquil” .
That reminds me…
The sports bar restaurant formerly known as BW3s now wishes to be called Buffalo Wild Wings. One less W is not an improvement. They have enshittified in many ways but I still like their sauces and they fry a fine wing.
You’re right, it was DayQuil. I mis-remembered. This was late 80s.
Sunny Delight was renamed SunnyD in 2003.
BW3 was for Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck, the original name. They were known as BW3, BDubs, and Buffalo Wild Wings before settling on the latter. Apparently the Weck (for beef on a Weck roll) wasn’t as popular, hence the rename.
Naragansett Beer has been informally called 'Gansett for a long time, and has been part of their marketing campaign since WWII.
Hi Neighbor! Have a 'Gansett!
I know but they haven’t had weck since I’ve been going since the late 90s and probably well before that. It’s basically a trivia answer like the cocaine in Coke or the lithium in 7-Up. BW3 was a unique and trademark-etable name that they let go for three uninspired words that already appear in countless restaurant & product names.
Duck Tape was not officially registered as a brand name until decades after the fact of everyday usage.
Were any BW3’s, other than the original one (next to Larry’s), non-shitty? Anyway, as @Telemark explains, BW-3 was not the “official” name, people just called it that, so it is a good candidate for this thread.