In everyday life, a tissue is a Kleenex, an adhesive bandage is a Band-Aid, and a photocopy is a Xerox. Lots of us use those brand names as shortcuts by habit, but the folks at Xerox wish we wouldn’t. They fear brand dilution. (And they’re not alone. Check out our earlier post about TiVo.) Now, Xerox is targeting Hollywood in its campaign to keep its trademarked name from being used as a noun (as in, "Xeroxes") or verb ("to Xerox") in movie and TV scripts. The marketer ran an ad in this week’s Hollywood Reporter reminding the creative community to "use Xerox only as an adjective to identify our products and services, such as Xerox copiers." Xerox doesn’t want to go the way of aspirin, escalator and zipper, which have lost their precious trademarks in the past because the marketers didn’t defend them from common usage, according to our brother blog, THR Esquire. It’s part of a larger effort from the marketer to protect its name against the dreaded genericide. I’ll contemplate the issue further as I Scotch tape some Q-tips together while sipping a Coke from my La-Z-Boy.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley