Comirnaty is Pfizer vaccine’s brand name; Spikevax is what Moderna’s has (only used in Europe so far). Nancy Friedman writes a blog about brand names and related topics. Here’s her take on these two names:
https://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2021/08/name-in-the-news-comirnaty.html
Best line (quoting someone else):
The name “comirnaty” immediately became a laughingstock. Here’s a WaPo article:
It’s so silly, I saw fit to post this news in the “Covidiot” thread.
Yeah, you can’t get people to take a vaccine that sounds like the punchline to a joke. Bad PR.
But I’ll jump right on a vaccine that sounds utterly metal!
Did no one say this name out loud, or attempt to, during the marketing development process? Wouldn’t that have immediately revealed issues?
I agree the names don’t sound good. However, I’d argue that, since no one really seems to use them, it makes sense not to waste any good names on them.
And, yes, I do think they knew that. People don’t tend to refer to the brand names of vaccines. Do you know the brand name or generic name of your flu shot? The MMR you got as a kid?
The fact that people remember the company’s name seems like a win to me.
That said, with Comirnaty, as it doesn’t sound like a vaccine name, I wonder if we could fool some antivaxxers by saying it’s “better than invermectin!” and they’d never know it was the vaccine.
At least invermectin doesn’t sound like you’re trying to say comorbidity.
It frankly sounds more Commie than Sputnik.
The worst part of “Comirnaty” in my view is the tendency in many fonts for “rn” to look a whole lot like “m”, which would make it much easy to pronounce.
Thanks to the Arial font r n vs. m confusion I was trying to pronounce it Comimaty which sounded marginally worse to my ears.
Edit: An-n-nd I just now see glowacks’ post immediately above mine. I guess we disagree on what sounds good.
These are both terrible names for these vaccines.
True, but Comirnaty is objectively more terrible.
The person(s) who came up with that name should let their co-parent name their children. Just accept whatever the other person wants. Obviously naming things is not among their strengths.
I agree.
If one of the mRNA vaccines was named “Freedom-Hating NeckBeard MouthBreather Juice”, I’d still sign up for the booster tomorrow if they let me.
Personally, I think they should have named it “Zinc-Bleach IverHydroMectinChloroquine” and marketed it as a cure for Alaskan Salmon gill fungal infections, while paying a certain past president to say that it also cures “the COVID” and erectile dysfunction (just ask Stormy!). Half of Arkansas would probably stand in line to get it then.
Usually I agree, but the brand/effect/side effect issue has been a big one with the anti-COVID vaccines.
Interestingly, both names, plus a couple other COVID vaxx brand names, were coined by the same company: Brand Inistitute. They even brag about doing so on their website.
Feels like the first step to monetization.
It’s a bad name for at least two different reasons. The name already is one that doesn’t role off the tongue… On top of that, the spelling was poorly chosen, as an r followed by an n like that can easily look like an m. At least they didn’t actually name it comimaty, which would have, IMHO, sounded even worse.
ETA: I missed others complaining about the r n and m issue.
ETA 2: I do like the spikevax name.
They can’t use the brand name until full FDA approval. That’s why the discussion is happening this week instead of back in January.
Somewhere, the Ermahgerd Girl* is shouting into the void, “No! I said community!”
*(I assume she was the sole member of the focus group that came up with the name.)
