I’m working on a novel in which there are two businesses that are shown in a very unfavorable light. I Googled the names before I used them–my first couple of choices were companies that actually exist–and I’m going to check one last time before I start sending the manuscript to agents.
I used to know this flaky chick who wanted to open a bakery. She thought it would be cute to call it KKK Katy’s. Like the song (that no one under the age of 80 has ever heard). People would read it as “cake cake cake.” Yeah, fortunately the ad firm who was doing her identity cleared that up for her.
Her name wasn’t even Katy to begin with.
There actually was a nightclub in Kendall Square in Boston called K-K-K-Katy’s in the 1970s and 1980s
I don’t think it suffered from anybody thinking about the Ku Klux Klan.
I’d heard about the EWWI-era song ( K-K-K-Katy - Wikipedia ). There had been remakes around 1970, and the song is mentioned in the 1973 Barbra Streisand movie The Way We Were
There are several verses to this, and the first one is perfectly appropriate.
In 1984, the Reagun - yes, THAT one, actually used Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” as a campaign song.
They didn’t stop because they found out what the song is about (a small-town loser who get sent to 'Nam and returns home and is shunned), but because Springsteen told them to stop.
“Strange Fruit” has nothing on a senile loser with a great smile.
There was an Arnie movie in which the eeevil company was named Cyrex… which then-hot chipmaker Cyrix objected to. After the film was in the can. The released version has some very bad CGI making it “Cyrez” on signs, doors, cars etc.