Generic product names

06/14/04

Generic product names

@ 08:06:41 pm

Erika and I really get a kick out of the names of generic food products that some manufacturers come up with. Sometimes, it seems they are trying to find names that are just dissimilar enough to avoid a lawsuit. Other times they generate long, awkward names in an attempt to explicitly describe the contents. Here are some of our favorites.

In the "Who Do They Think They're Fooling?" category:
Generic Wheat Thins are Thin Wheats
Rice Krispies becomes Crisp Rice

Two of the more creative cereal names:
Marshmallow Mateys (fake Lucky Charms)
Honey Buzzers (fake Honey Combs)

The Slow Day In the Marketing Department Award:
Instead of Crispix, Crispy Hexagons (I wonder what percentage of the population has no idea what a hexagon is)

And my personal favorite:

Sugar
Frosted

Flakes

of corn

4 comments

Comment from: Ellen [Visitor]

Kyle, These make me giggle :) Some of your blog visitors might be familiar with the West Coast grocery chain Trader Joe's. It's a smaller, trendier kind of grocery store that has lots of organic and other sometimes unusual products at decent prices. They sell these cereal bars that are basically like Nutri-Grain bars except the ingredients are better (no trans fats or corn syrup). But the best part is the name: "this strawberry walks into a bar . . ." "this blueberry walks into a bar . . ." "this fig walks into a bar . . ." "this apple walks into a bar . . ." I love it! When you guys come visit, we'll have to go to Trader Joe's :)