# Those annoying attempts to create fads out of whole cloth **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 23, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727 "2006-07-23T18:31:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Salt\_Seller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Salt\_Seller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salt_Seller)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/41 "2006-07-25T00:41:29Z")
[QUOTE=wm–] Not just Sailor Moon, anime in general. Remember back when video games were the province of nerds and losers? Then they blew up and became something the cool kids did? Anime was supposedly the next nerd phenomenon from Japan that was going to enter the American mainstream in a big way. Lots of companies jumped on the bandwagon and made fools of themselves trying to make anime play to the cool kids. Now the fad has come and gone and anime is back to a niche for nerds. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Are you sure, because it seems like I can’t escape the goddamn things. Adult Swim has (or at least had) a whole block of cartoons, and my library has a whole anime section for the kids and teens that we can barely keep stocked. Isn’t this just the same shit they tried to sell us with _Speed Racer_ back when I was a kid? ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/42 "2006-07-25T01:28:04Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] There’s a Hay Fever medicine here called Zyrtec that ran an ad campaign very recently, which tried to introduce"… like a Zyrtec" as a way of expressing how quickly something happened or worked- the ad had two twentysomething women sitting in a cafe, with one of them saying that she bought up the marriage thing with her boyfriend and he left “like a Zyrtec”, complete with that bitchy finger clicking thing you see on Jerry Springer (I believe it was called “Bitch, my man ain’t yo baby’s daddy!” in _Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back_). Pissed me off no end, it did, and ensured that if I ever needed an allergy medicine, I’d be getting Telfast or something that didn’t try and make itself “cool”. [/QUOTE] That reminds me of a campaign a few years back with… couscous. I don’t remember the ad verbatim, but it was saying that couscous would replace potatoes, and it had a woman telling a man, “Oh, you’re such a couch couscous!” Gah. I hate that I even still remember that. :smack: Also Dairy Queen = DQ. I have my own nicknames for most of this stuff. Kraft Dinner to me is “Kraffy”. McDonald’s to me is “McDoink’s”. Sunny Delight to me is “You actually expect me to consume this?” So don’t try to make them up for me, okay? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/43 "2006-07-25T18:11:42Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Probably not, but it does have that nice little ding sound when you hit stuff with it. You want something more than that soft wooden sound and that cushy resistance like when you hit a pillow. That sharp aluminum ding is just the ticket. Besides, stainless is so sterile. [/QUOTE] I suppose that the only real way to find out the answer is to try all three! hh BTW, I remember the Freddie. Freddie and the Dreamers. I also remember Michael Landon dancing it on one of those dance shows in the 60s. Vewy Skawy. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/44 "2006-07-25T18:35:29Z")
[QUOTE=handsomeharry] I suppose that the only real way to find out the answer is to try all three! hh BTW, I remember the Freddie. Freddie and the Dreamers. I also remember Michael Landon dancing it on one of those dance shows in the 60s. Vewy Skawy. [/QUOTE] Somehow Michael Landon dancing just doesn’t compute. I do remember him from his pre-Bonanza days playing the albino they used to dowse for treasure on [_God’s Little Acre_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051666/) with Robert Ryan, Buddy Hackett, Aldo Ray, Jack Lord, Tina Louise, Fay Spain and maybe even some others in one of those Tobacco Road stories from the decadent South. And even though he rolled around in the hay with “Darlin’ Jill” I couldn’t visualize his dancing even The Freddie. I always though Landon could be the third Everly Brother… Maybe we need to advise the Jellin’ crowd that the bats would help sell more of those inserts? ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/45 "2006-07-25T21:08:46Z")
[QUOTE=handsomeharry] And good friends, are we too blind, too jaded, too heart-torn to remember MICKEY D’s? [/QUOTE] I do not call McDonald’s “Mickey D’s” and never have. It’s still three syllables, and coincidentally, it’s the same number of typed characters, so, unlike KFC, it doesn’t benefit me in terms of achieving efficiency. It just sounds asinine to me. I suppose the day will come when McDonald’s decides to do what Fed Ex did a few years back when they officially changed their name from “Federal Express” because it will become so commonplace. I don’t mind abbreviations or initials if using them is more convenient and readily understood by others (IHOP, KFC, etc.) , but I only use them for convenience, not to sound “hip” or “cool.” ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/46 "2006-07-25T21:35:26Z")
[QUOTE=rinni] I don’t know if this counts, but I hate when companies try to make up nicknames for their own products. Like Sunny D and KD. With KD meaning Kraft Dinner - I clarify this because I seem to recall that in the US it’s just called Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or at least it used to be. [/QUOTE] KFC. I hate that. Why must you speak in code? The product has a name. Use it. Ditto for Mickey D’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/47 "2006-07-25T22:35:09Z")
_cough_ _Robitussin!_ Y’know. “The ‘Bless You’ for coughs.” Really, now. And did they really expect people to walk into a pharmacy and ask for “_Riiiiiiiccolaaaaaaaaaa!_”? Bring your Alpenhorn. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/48 "2006-07-25T22:59:39Z")
If I’m remembering right, they tried to do this with the second Bill & Ted movie, having them use “Station!” to mean cool all the time. Or was that a real fad that I just missed? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/49 "2006-07-25T23:10:37Z")
FWIW, Washington Mutual has been known as WaMu within the banking industry (where I work) for some time. But that’s not exactly street cred…so no, they don’t get a pass. It’s still lame. And yes, I remember The Freddie. God only knows what I could be doing with those brain cells; something infinitely better, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/50 "2006-07-26T00:19:36Z")
When I was in high school in the late 70’s it was Mickey D’s or Mac-D’s. I believe we also said KFC then as well. Heck, I should be seeing a check or something! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/51 "2006-07-26T02:05:57Z")
[QUOTE=wm–] Now the fad has come and gone and anime is back to a niche for nerds. 🙂 [/QUOTE] So much the better - Westernized anime is just unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/52 "2006-07-26T02:12:37Z")
[QUOTE=jsc1953] God only knows what I could be doing with those brain cells; something infinitely better, I’m sure. [/QUOTE] You know, it seems like there ought to be some way to let the American Cancer Society’s scientists use them. At least while you’re asleep. **astro** , the shocker was a real fad. It was way underground in the 80s. I remember the first time I saw a foam hand in that shape at a football game on TV. I was thinking, “that’s not a… aw what the hell!” ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/53 "2006-07-26T02:48:06Z")
[QUOTE=wm–] Anime was supposedly the next nerd phenomenon from Japan that was going to enter the American mainstream in a big way. [/QUOTE] Anyone remember when anime was just starting to become known here and the media tried to label it Japanimation? Am I ever glad that that didn’t stick! [QUOTE=Garfield226] You are clearly not gellin’. [/QUOTE] Au contraire! I’m so gellin’ my feet are swellin’. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/54 "2006-07-26T02:59:12Z")
[QUOTE=Santos L Halper] Washington Mutual Bank: **Wamu** [/QUOTE] But…it’s just so emotionally satisfying to refer to a bank as “Wham-You”. My sister keeps trying to tell me that I’m mis-pronouncing it. Silly Sister! ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/55 "2006-07-26T05:24:21Z")
[QUOTE=Santos L Halper] Two companies that use a shortened version of their names in commercials to seem hip: Washington Mutual Bank: **Wamu** Cumberland Farms (convenience store chain): **Cumby’s** Gah! Every time I hear them use these nicknames it’s like nails on a blackboard! [/QUOTE] Wamu!!! Oh, FUCK that is irritating. That ad is on the radio where I live. Cumby’s??? Sounds like a porno for Gumby… ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/56 "2006-07-26T05:50:19Z")
There’s an In-n-Out (western US hamburger chain) ad running on the radio these days that features a guy trying to get “Double-Double” to catch on in his office as an adjective that means something is good. (The Double-Double is a double cheeseburger, for those who don’t know.) > [@matt\_mcl](#): > > I seem to recall during my early childhood a number of companies attempting to get us to add, as a synonym for “cool,” “awesome,” etc., the word “tubular.” > > The reaction - at least among Winnipeg fifth-graders - was distinctly unimpressed. During my early childhood I got the impression that “tubular” was a genuine, organic fad-word that was just passing out of style. A level on Super Mario Bros. for the SNES features the word in its name. I vaguely remember some commercials that said “tubular”, but over here it was already a (once-)popular catchphrase IIRC. > [@Martini Enfield](#): > > Pogs were another thing that I recall a chip company- Smiths, maybe?- trying to introduce a few years ago. Sure, they may have been big in California or wherever the hell they were from, but their attempts to make the “cool” to kids… “Pogs! Caps! The Game!” ensured that their efforts would be met with derision by all and sundry… It _is_ important to note that they weren’t trying to _make_ it cool. It already _was_ cool, even if it hadn’t hit Australia. Given that the ad was probably produced in Southern California, they might’ve just assumed pogs were cool everywhere. > [@Salt Seller](#): > > Isn’t this just the same shit they tried to sell us with Speed Racer back when I was a kid? Not really. Anime isn’t so much a genre as it is a style. A lot of anime that’s very popular with teenagers has heavy/dark themes, a lot is on a similar level with popular American cartoons and TV/comics in general, and some is pretty surreal and very much like nothing else that can be found here. I don’t watch anime myself unless I fall in to an occasion where it’s being shown (about twice a year, it seems), but I watched the “kiddy anime” shows that became popular on early-morning kids’ TV stations when I was young, and I know a lot of people who watch more serious anime now. > [@saoirse](#): > > You know, it seems like there ought to be some way to let the American Cancer Society’s scientists use them. At least while you’re asleep. No way! You can pry my dreamscapes from my cold, dead hands. > [@saoirse](#): > > I remember the first time I saw a foam hand in that shape at a football game on TV. I was thinking, “that’s not a… aw what the hell!” Arizona State University uses the same hand symbol to represent the pitchfork used by its devil mascot. Completely unrelated. ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/57 "2006-07-26T06:29:49Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] There’s an In-n-Out (western US hamburger chain) ad running on the radio these days that features a guy trying to get “Double-Double” to catch on in his office as an adjective that means something is good. (The Double-Double is a double cheeseburger, for those who don’t know.) [/quote] At Tim Hortons (I don’t know about other coffee places) a double-double is a coffee with two cream and two sugar. I never figured out which double was cream and which was sugar, though. Like if you got a triple-double, would you get more cream or more sugar? Who can know? [Quote=fetus] During my early childhood I got the impression that “tubular” was a genuine, organic fad-word that was just passing out of style. A level on Super Mario Bros. for the SNES features the word in its name. [/QUOTE] Hehe, I was going to mention that as well. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/58 "2006-07-26T06:46:21Z")
Oh, hell yeah, pogs. Actually a bit surprised to find out that it wasn’t just my state. Those stupid cardboard circles where freakin’ everywhere, and there was a statewide _ad campaign_ plugging them. Hell, the indie video store stocked them, and IIRC was selling them right up to the point they went out of business. Cardboard circles. Goddam **cardboard circles**. I knew this was destined for a disastrous end from day one. Also, anyone remember that “swing revival” several years back? Swing dancing. Pushed to the moon as a hot new activity for young people. There were music videos (I only remember one, Jump Jive And Wail), for crying out loud. Okay, I understand that there are a lot of dancers who like this, but young folks on a national level? Uh…no. The Macarena. Uuuuugh. When a totally made-up dance that could’ve been used in a thousand other videos and set to a butchered Americanized song ends up on _Sportscenter_, we as a nation have gone seriously off the rails. Oh yeah…at the risk of sounding vitriolic, may I also nominate **elevating completely generic boring people into megastar celebrities for no reason whatsoever?** Paris Hilton. William Hung. Bloggers. I’m sorry, but doing something about a million other people can do/have done does not make you newsworthy. Now anime, that wasn’t necessarily a bad idea. I saw a number of classic titles, including the memorabl Star Blazers, as a kid, and they were a blast. I think the big mistake a lot of companies made was underestimating just how much work making an anime title kid-friendly is. Unless it’s something that was originally aimed for a young or family audience (e.g. Hello Kitty), it’s going to have “suggestiveness”. And, er, lots of non-kid friendly subject matter. I saw the Americanized Sailor Moon, and Dic’s chopped-up pastiches were _dreadful_. I’m glad the initial hype died, so we could take anime seriously and not ham-handedly shove it all into a “cartoons for kids” mold. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/59 "2006-07-26T14:57:39Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] The champion corporation of all time of this sort of thing has to be Old Navy, who will present as the latest craze whatever surplus clothing they happen to need to get rid of. A few months ago it was “Everybody in madras,” because they had a lot of it lying around. The ads are slick and people fall for it. You have to admit, they’re good at it. [/QUOTE] And, for gods sake, there ain’t nothing more fucking ugly than Madras. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727/60 "2006-07-26T15:17:12Z")
[QUOTE=handsomeharry] And good friends, are we too blind, too jaded, too heart-torn to remember MICKEY D’s? [/QUOTE] Blind? Jaded? What are you talking about?!? \*\* I’m lovin’ it.[sup]TM[/sup]\*\* 😃 [QUOTE=cuauhtemoc] For a decade I have been openly defying Kentucky Fried Chicken’s campaign to be known only by its initials. Fuck them. [/QUOTE] Worse yet was when they briefly tried to make us believe that KFC stood for Kitchen Fresh Chicken. I remember the ads, the billboards, even the buckets the chicken came in had the new backronym. Feh. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-annoying-attempts-to-create-fads-out-of-whole-cloth/365727.md?page=4)