Brand Names

This morning I had to sharpen the blades on my riding mower. I don't know how to take the mower deck off so I had to take the blades off while attached. But the deck was too close to the ground to get in there. It was too heavy to lift up by hand and put on blocks. So I needed to get my car jack.

Now it occurred to me that what I was doing seemed just kind of funny. Well it did to me, maybe not anyone else, but I smiled just thinking about the oddness of the brand name situation.

I was jacking up my John Deere riding mower using my Volvo jack. I used my Craftsmen socket wrenches to take the blades off the mower and sharpen them on my Black and Decker bench grinder.

And now I am sitting here drinking Lipton iced tea I made, out of a Coca-Cola glass, typing on an Acer laptop, looking at school supplies bearing Crayola, Staples, Expo, Bic, TI, and other brand names.
We are inundated with brand names every day. Some have even come into everyday English to be used as a common name for something. I go to a restaurant and order a Coke. I may get Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or even RC (only in the South it seems). I at times use a crescent wrench to remove a bolt, even though it is an adjustable wrench made by some other manufacturer. I take a tylenol though it bears the Equate brand.

Generically, inline skates are all called Rollerblades, no matter who manufactures them. Most times people refer to cellophane tape as Scotch tape, regardless of the manufacturer. How about all those Sharpies? What about those jeans, are they really Levi's? And the list goes on.

Well, I think I will just eat some dark chocolate M&M's and forget the whole thing. I have to go Google something anyway.



Copyright 2006, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)