People here are so negative! The x branding is awesome and lends itself to so many product or service names.
Direct payments to other X users: DirectX
A household gadget that handles all X processing: XBox
A virtual gym : ActiveX
You wouldn’t see a company as boring as Microsoft use anything like that.
Agile permitting
“Dunking” is one way to look at it. Free publicity is another.
The new name is objectively awful, and it’s idiotic to kill an established brand. But the name change isn’t going to be what kills Twitter. It’s everything else Musk is doing.
My amusement at Musk’s ineptitude was previously tempered by the damage he was doing to employees’ personal lives and to established networks of global communication.
But that damage is now all done so I am free to laugh at his apparently boundless incompetence. I hope he manages to keep dragging the Twitter corpse along for a while longer so the hilarity can continue.
I kept seeing conflicting reports that X is owned by Facebook and also Microsoft. Then I saw a clarification that Facebook owns the rights to X in the social networking space, while Microsoft owns the rights to X in the e-commerce space. Double whammy.
I’m all for relieving billionaires of their money. And getting them to do so willingly makes it so much easier. Some billionaires like to throw money into a hole in the shape of yacht. Elno like a hollowed-out company.
I look forward to the amazing tantrum Elmo throws when cease-and-desists start flying for the blatant trademark infringements.
He’s used to running roughshod over the little people but I don’t see him getting as much traction against those companies. I can see them letting him flail in many ways, but if they want to keep those trademarks, they do have to actively and publicly defend them.
Also, I like how you called it Facebook. Nobody calls it Meta. Nor does anybody call it Alphabet rather than Google. And they don’t fight it too hard in public.
But Musk can’t be expected to learn a simple lesson about branding like that.
This would have sufficed.
Careful. Calling Musk inept will summon the Sam, who has no choice but to defend him.
As long as we don’t call him Xam.
I hope that does not mean there will be a Tesla Colon soon. On the other hand, why not? Would be in character, like the customary poop emoji kneejerk response.
If Mr. Musk believes he is really changing something with a new logo, then he has added an interesting dimension to the word logorrhea. Yes, he of all people, the chatterbox before the Lord, the master of the word bubble and unfulfilled promises, the autonomous ghost driver of announcements. Hats off!
Well, at least he didn’t fall in love with the letter “Z.” We shall show gratitude for what could have gone worse. One becomes humble.
Hats off? Did I say hats off? For FuX sake, what was I thinking of? I meant the other word, of course.
Hmmm… boring company. Wait, nope, Elmo already took that name.
That’s because they wisely kept their sites as “Facebook” and “Google”, knowing that the brand recognition they had was priceless. Meta and Alphabet are the parent companies.
If Elmo just followed that strategy and kept the parent as X but left the media platform as Twitter, there would be no controversy.
I wonder what they call the old Twitter in Brazil?
I’m not that familiar with Brazilian Portuguese but I have a little familiarity with Angolan Portuguese.
I would wager that some variation of “Fila da puta!” would be used.
both of those will be dead any day now … ;o)
No Doubt!
When I was learning the language, I was told that Brazilian Portuguese did not have the letter X (and one other, I don’t remember, was it K?) which, to even the casual observer was a ludicrous idea. Plenty of words, names and places all containing the letter. It was pronounced “Sheese” more-or-less. Led to some comical situations during my visit.
Was looking at a menu in a cafe. They had Hamburger, Hamburger Grande, Hamburger Especial and the Enigmatic “X-Burger”. I got to wondering… They got regular, larger (double I assumed) and Special, which I figured had The Works. Wow, what is this "X-Burger? That must be really great. To satisfy my curiosity, I asked the waiter in my best Bad Portuguese “What is the X-Burger?”
Dude looks at me like I’m the biggest Idiot on the Continent and says, “Sheese-Burger, Sabe? Con Queso!” I will never forget the look on this guy’s face. Here was the look on mine…
I think this to be a very astute move.
First of all, the old-fashioned logo of a bluebird is traditionally associated with happiness. This does not fit into the bold vision Musk sees for the company. You’d see it too if you had his talent.
Second of all, New Coke wasn’t a bad idea at all. Just ahead of its time. Essentially, it was an earlier example of brand extension. Like grocery stores selling twenty variations of Snapple or your favourite brand of barbecue sauce. Sure, it was initially criticized by people who knew better. But none of them held the 1996 Olympic Games.
The truth is out there.