rebranding

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Nov 12 15:26:39 UTC 2011


And not just one's "public" image.

CNN advises that people who've lost their jobs may need to "retrain,"
"rebrand," and "redefine" themselves.

JL

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 10:04 AM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: rebranding
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I guess "Chicken Little" ("The Space Merchants", Pohl and Kornbluth) has
> arrived.
>
> http://phronesisaical.blogspot.com/2006/06/chicken-little.html
>
> Eric
>
> On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: rebranding
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Many readers will be familiar with the "urban legend" regarding the
>> rebranding of Kentucky Fried Chicken as KFC.  The aim was not to eliminate
>> the opprobrius "fried" but rather to avoid the word "chicken"--which,
>> according to (instrusive) government regulations, must designate a a living,
>> breathing, feathered, two-winged, two-lfooted, one-backed, one-necked fowl.
>>  You see, the corporation is now raising hydroponic pseudo-birds, without
>> feathers or wings or feet or backs or necks or heads or entrials--just the
>> choice and profitable parts of the fryer.
>>
>>
>> --Charlie
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of
>> Margaret Lee [mlee303 at YAHOO.COM]
>> Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011 4:32 AM
>>
>>
>> KFC was also advertising a=A0few years ago as Kitchen Fresh
>> Chicken.=0A=0A-=
>> -Margaret Lee=0A=0A>> >Kentucky Fried Chicken --> KFC (to avoid the
>> referen=
>> ce to "fried" food)=0A>=0A> Some of these abbreviations, like the above
>> cou=
>> ple, overlap with the=0A> more general practice of euphemistic distancing
>> b=
>> y initialism=0A> extending to the rebranding of non-brands, as in V.D. and
>> =
>> STD/STI=0A> (discussed here recently), along with E.D., P.E. (not the gym
>> k=
>> ind),=0A> and now in commercials Low T.=A0 I like to think of these as
>> plai=
>> n=0A> brown wrapper initialisms.=0A>=0A> LH=0A>=0A>
>> -----------------------=
>>
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>>
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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