I’m sure its every product owners dream to actually become ‘the norm’ for a certain activity, use or channel. Hold on – I know we’ve been here before, but bear with me… “Do the Hoovering” is perhaps the most commonly used example, which came top in yesterday’s Shortlist magazine top-10 brands that usurped the product name – here’s their list:
- Hoover (vacuum cleaner)
- Sellotape (adhesive tape)
- Rollerblade (inline skates)
- Jet Ski (stand-up personal watercraft)
- Biro (ballpoint pen)
- iPod (MP3 player)
- Tipp-Ex (correction fluid)
- Portakabin (mobile building)
- Tannoy (public address system)
- AstroTurf (artificial grass)
These are all brands and the biggest surprises for me are Jet Ski and Tannoy. Although I’m unsure of the publishers criteria here as there are some obvious (digital) omissions, including our favourite “Just Google it“ and things like “Facebook them”. Could be some time however, before “I’m fully Dusted” enters common vocabulary.
Photo credit: Flickr user evilnick