The Ferret (tibialmusician) wrote in linguaphiles,
The Ferret
tibialmusician
linguaphiles

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When a brand name becomes common parlance


In ontario Canada at least we have several things that we speak of by a namebrand of a company. ie tissues = Kleenex and bandages = bandaids.

 As well there are tv spots for a film called zombieland (I have a purpose i swear).  Part of the ad campaign is that the charatcers have rules for how to survive in a zombie filled wasteland. Anyways in one spot one character offers the others hand sanitizer but simply says "Do you guys want some purel?" clip here mild caution it is a rather violent but not excessively bloody just impressive makeup.

What I'm curious to know is does anyone else have any memories or experiences of hand sanitizer or what have you being simply referred to as purell? I have on occassion but only when I'm speaking of the product itself rather than just using it as a general umbrella term.

My friends and I have come up with two theories for the film's usage of it. Mine is that it's a paid advertising by the company purell itself and his is that it's simply for the sake of saving words.

Any thoughts? Either that or does anyone know how I could find out if purell did pay for the namedrop?

edit: I threw on a few tags but wasn't sure what others might apply so do let me know if i should add/remove any tags on this entry.
Tags: american english, colloquialisms, cultural perceptions, dontflamemebro, english
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  • Anatomy of a "CUNT"

    The word CUNT is not simple, but compound. It consists of two parts. However, first of all, let's get rid of prejudices. The word CUNT is as…

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