Naming and Branding Agency

Posts from: September 2007

T.S. Eliot and the Nonsensical Naming of Practical Cats

Oh, hai.

Rob May at Businesspundit is selling his blog, because he doesn’t want to sell out.

I never intended to make money blogging. It just sort of happened, once this blog hit a certain level. It was a nice side income, and has helped fund many of my other projects. But as blogging has become more competitive, and more and more people are trying to make money at it, I have realized that I am not interested in continuing. I have watched Businesspundit slip a little bit each year in the Technorati rankings, and I have realized that I lack a very important attribute of good writers - the ability to say what people want to hear.

This blog has never been about what readers want. It has been about what I want to say. And I know that I am weird and my views are not mainstream at all. People want easy. People want instant. People want to be told that they are right. People want to have their views reaffirmed. I’m a natural contrarian who believes that most trends are overhyped, that most people need more focus and discipline, and that conventional wisdom is usually wrong. Those topics will never be as popular as say… stupid cat pictures.

lolcats funny cat pictures

The overwhelming popularity of LOL Cats should not be surprising, nor should it be viewed as irrelevant nonsense. Were he alive today, Thomas Stearns Eliot would probably laugh out loud, himself. T.S. Eliot’s collection of poetry, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, first published in 1939, inspired the ever-popular musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats.

The Naming of Cats
The Old Gumbie Cat
Growltiger’s Last Stand
The Rum Tum Tugger
The Song of the Jellicles
Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer
Old Deuteronomy
Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles
Mr. Mistoffelees
Macavity: The Mystery Cat
Gus: The Theatre Cat
Bustopher Jones: The Cat about Town
Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat
The Ad-dressing of Cats
Cat Morgan Introduces Himself

In this essay on T.S. Eliot’s Book of Practical Cats, Mary Beth Tinsley elucidates:

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats challenges the usefulness of accepted literary categories—genre, tone, theme—by its tendency to slip out from under their heavy-handed application. With this risk in mind, I shall examine Eliot’s Book as an example of satire, a descendant perhaps of the seventeenth-century “characters,” conveying through the manipulation of perspectives an oblique commentary on human society and its conventions.

Elizabeth Sewell reminds us of Eliot’s debt to the nonsense mode of Lewis Carroll. She sees the Book of Practical Cats as a receptacle for all the “love and charity” excised from Eliot’s serious existential statements—a sort of immersion in the otherwise destructive element, nonsense, as the ultimate way to reach heaven.

We here at the Snark Hunting naming and branding blog are huge fans of Lewis Carroll, T.S. Eliot, and Cats of all names. And this blog has always been and will always be about what the reader wants — i can has names?

Naming and Branding in the News: 09.30.07

B to B Online
NYTimes.com Launches New Branding Campaign

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Bank of New York Mellon to Start Branding Campaign

Jim Cota in the Indianapolis Business Journal
On the Net: Buying and branding the Bonds ball

Shaun Rein in BusinessWeek
The Key to Successful Branding in China

Los Angeles Times
Tyler Brûlé’s tunnel vision

thestar online
Core competency vital for effective branding

Naming and Branding in the Blogs: 09.29.07

Rob May at Businessspundit
Advertising on the Edge - Louisville Gets Controversial

Hugh MacLeod at gapingvoid.com
unleashing the blue monster [drum roll, please….]

Jeff Lefevere at REthink Wine Blog
Distilled Lessons in Shareable Branding for Wineries

Matthew Yglesias at theAtlantic.com
Great Moments in Sneaker-Naming

James Fallows at theAtlantic.com
Country Naming Conventions: Burma v. Mayanmar

Aaron Toponce at pthree.org
The Linux Naming Controversy

Paul Durrant, quoted at TidBITS
Mac model naming conventions

blogTO.com
Jane-Finch to be Re-Branded as University Heights

Steve Blackburn at Baby Names and Meanings
10 Great Baby Naming Tips

Neatorama
Trivia: Aztec and The Art of Naming a Child

Nothingandall, reciting Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
The Naming of Cats - T. S. Eliot

Web 2.0 Company Name Generator

“Time-waster of the day: Sim Web 2.0. It’s a little flash game that automatically generates a name for your Web 2.0 startup, like Twitcast or Youcrunch, a press clip, and a list of things to do to build the company.” [via TechCrunch]

Cockfest

Today is Cockfest, USC’s annual homecoming pep rally. Not to be confused with the USC Trojans, it’s the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. And certainly not to be confused with your usual cockfest, or with the porn website CockFest.com, “home of the hot big dicks”. Go cocks!

Naming and Branding in the News: 09.23.07

Steve Clarke in Variety
‘Blue Peter’ cat-naming vote rigged

Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post
Auction to Name Fish Species Nets $2 Million for Conservation

John Russell in the Indianapolis Star
When naming a drug, it’s an inexact science

Jeff McDonald in the Register-Guard
Town of Sisters adopts brand logo to fashion new identity

Jessica Marshall in the KC Community News
Shawnee looks at city branding

newindpress.com
Air India resurrects itself through re-branding

Newsrack India
Pink is now red as Hutch is Vodafone in India

Tim Pollard at Car Magazine
The grey area of green branding

Michelle Quinn at the Los Angeles Times
Dot-com names get dottier

Mary Ann Fergus at the Chicago Tribune
A year later, Field's enthusiasts still fighting for name

British Names From Hell

More than 100 runners competed in the annual Hades Hill Fell Race in Whitworth. Whitworth’s mayor Tina Mycock fired the starting pistol for the five-mile event organised by Derek Clutterbuck.

Blimey, those are real names?!

For more terribly British names, see The Very British Name Generator.

80 articles about naming and branding

80 articles about naming and branding.

Naming and Branding in the News: 09.16.07

Steve McKee in BusinessWeek
How Solid Is Your Brand?

BBC News
Aston Martin UK’s ‘coolest brand’

International Herald Tribune
After 25 years, USA Today plans to expand its brand beyond journalism

Juliet Eilperin in the Washington Post
New Species Owe Names to Highest Bidder

Andrew Adam Newman in the New York Times
Depilatory Market Moves Far Beyond the Short-Shorts Wearers

David Lazarus in the Los Angeles Times
Ad slogan is a subtle shift for Wal-Mart

The Telegraph
What’s in a name? A barrel of laughs

Time
Style & Design: Global Luxury Brands Survey

FLICK OFF, CANADA

FLICK OFF is a movement to fight climate change by getting Canadians to use less energy. “We need you! Time is short to prevent a climate crisis, but it hasn’t run out—so join the FLICK OFF movement.” Gotta love those Canadian naming and branding experts, eh?