I think it was Kinko’s a few years ago that briefly used the tagline “A Better Way to Office”.
With the singular exception of Herbert Kornfeld, I have neither before nor since heard anyone use the word “office” as a verb.
Public sentiment must have agreed with me, since the ads disappeared before too long.
Let me add my name to the list of those who hate, hate, hate commercials where some twit from an ad agency tries to create a nickname. There’s one here in the Phoenix area from one of the local ambulance chasers that’s been doing that for years. Their commercials show bad actors being abused by insurance companies, then their eyes light up and they say “let’s call The Eagle!”
On a national level, we’ve seen this recently from UPS, who are trying to create the nickname “brown” for themselves. I don’t mind the use of slogans (such as their “what can Brown do for you?”, but horribly forced scenarios where “real people” use their “nicknames” really get on my nerves.
I also have an alternate theory to the “let’s make a nickname to look cool” theory. It’s the “Let’s create our own nickname so that people don’t use a less flattering nickname for us.” theory. (“The insurance company is trying to screw us. Let’s call the shysters from that commercial.”)
DoctorJ
[Calvin]“Verbing weirds language”[/Calvin]
I am truly ashamed of myself for not remembering the UPS “Brown” ads myself.:smack: Y’know, call me 12 years old, but I think of feces every time I see one of their commercials…
hrh
I haven’t seen one in a while, but I remember an ad for a Boston area legal firm in which they referred to themselves as “The Law Doctors” this apparently being a reference to some special medical expertise that makes them the firm to turn to for personal injury cases.
Whenever that ad came on and they said, “The Law Doctors” I’d respond with a rousing, “We Doctor the Law!”
It annoyed the hell out of everyone else in my dorm to the point where they finally started threatening bodily harm if I didn’t stop to which I simply replied, “Hey, don’t make me call down the Law Doctors on your asses.”
My periphal vision has since returned, but I fear I’ll be walking with a limp for the rest of my life.
Hey, seeing how bad Subway was financially BEFORE Jared and what happened directly because of Jared (People will ALWAYS go for the food where people lost weight), I can give them a break on that :D.
What I’ve always hated is the use of the full name of a product, especially when nobody ever uses it.
I recall most prominently one for Rice Krispies which had an “oh-so-cute” child instructing her younger sibling how to make Rice Krispie Squares: “First, pour out a big bowl of Kellog’s Rice Krispies. Then ask mom to make you a batch of Kellog’s Rice Krispies squares.”
More recently the commercial is for Disney’s two parks, Disneyland and CA. Sorry, that’s “Disney’s California Adventure.” The commercial has a kid bugging his dad because he can’t decide which one to go to: “Disneyland. No, Disney’s California Adventure.” Repeat for the entirety of the ad.
Let me turn off my RCA Television System and Nintendo GameCube Gaming Console while I type this up on my Hewlett-Packard Home Desktop Personal Computer. Slides right off the tongue, doesn’t it?