Herb <snip>

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Tue, 16 Sep 2003 21:05:41 EDT, >   Bapopik at AOL.COM
> writeth:
>
> HERB
>
>   The RHHDAS has "Herb" (_Stu._ a clumsy or stupid person; GEEK) from 1993,
> Univ. Tenn. prof., age 49.  Did that Tennessee professor come from New York
> City?  The other cites are NYC, including one "1994 Graffito in N.Y.C.
> subway
> (Coll. J. Sheidlower)."


Didn't the Burger King chain have an advertising campaign in the late 1980's
in which there were pictures of "Herb" posted and if you spotted the person in
the picture and asked him, "Are you Herb" you won a prize?

If memory serves, the Wall Street Journal did a front-page article on this
advertising campaign.

I think it more likely that Burger King's advertising people picked up
(perhaps unconsciously) on an existing connotation of "Herb" as a nickname for a
geekish person than that they managed to pile such a connotation onto a
previously colorless nickname.

I also think there is no connection to the existence of VP-later-President G.
Herbert Bush.

     - Jim Landau