Weekly English Words with Alisha Generic Brand Names
Ola! Como estas! Welcome! I’m gonna stop there.
Hi there, and welcome back to Weekly Words.
My name is Alisha, and today we’re going to talk about generic trademarks. Oh, these are
all examples of brands where the name of the brand has become synonymous with whenever
the brand product itself is. This is gonna
be fun.
“Jacuzzi.” Oh really? A “jacuzzi” is a brand? I didn’t know that. See? Okay, a “jacuzzi”
is a hot tub. Essentially, it’s just a type
of hot tub. So many people have come to know
that “Jacuzzi” equals hot tub that “Jacuzzi” now just means “hot tub,” even though it’s
the name of the brand. So you might say, “Hey, come
over to my house this weekend. We’re all gonna have a… No, you might say, “Oh, I just bought
a new Jacuzzi. Do you want to come in?” No, that’s creepy too! “I’m thinking about buying
a Jacuzzi. Do you have any recommendations?”
Next. “Chapstick.” You might use chapstick. I use chapstick. Chapstick is just a brand
of lip balm. So whenever your lips feel dry
or when they feel chapped, you put chapstick
on your lips. In a sentence, you might say,
“I carry my chapstick with me everywhere.
I love it.”
“Kleenex.” “Kleenex” is another great example of a brand that now equals a product. Here’s
“kleenex.” Is this actually “Kleenex”? No!
this is “Askul.” Can you see it? This is actually,
this is not “Kleenex.” But we probably refer to this as “Kleenex.” Yeah. “Tissue.” It’s
just tissues. Not even made by “Kleenex.”
“Can you pass me a
Kleenex?”
Next is “post-its.” Oh, post-its are very
useful. They’re just a small notepad. Here’s
another one. There’s some notes written on it already. This is a small one, also not
made by Post-it, but it’s the same sort of
thing. It’s just a piece of paper that has
a sticky back and you can stick it to things. But post-its, now people will ask for a post-it
instead of just a sticky-back note paper.
I guess “post-it” is an easier thing to say.
What else would you call it it if not a post-it? Sticky paper? Or glue note? I’m waiting for
you, entrepreneurs.
Next is “band-aids,” and this was the first
one that I thought of actually when I saw
this topic. “Band-aids, ah, when you get hurt, when you get a paper cut, it’s got a little
piece of, kind of, tapey bandage that you
peel stuff off of, and then you stick on whatever
you’ve just hurt. But that thing is just called a “bandage,” right? It’s a sticky bandage.
There are a lot of sticky things.
Most of the time I think when you get a paper cut or something at work or at school or whenever,
they’ll say,
“Oh my gosh, do you need a bandaid?”
That’s the end of words, products, brands,
hmmm. Products that have become synonymous
with brand. That’s the end of products…
What? Okay, that’s the end of generic trademarks.
I hope that you’ve learned a few new things this week. Thanks very much for watching again,
and I will see you next time. Bye-bye!