Frontier Airlines recently held a naming contest to celebrate its merger with Midwest:
The badger was added to Frontier’s family of animals featured on the tails of the airline’s jets after Frontier merged with Wisconsin-based Midwest Airlines under the Frontier name.
Wisconsin residents were asked to name the badger and, on May 28, Frontier announced three finalists: Bella, Buddy and Cookie. Then, Wisconsin residents were given until July 4 to vote for their favorite.
The final winner? Buddy.
ABC Denver
Like any other exotic culture, Las Vegas fascinates me. The Los Angeles Times has a great story on the latest trend in Vegas clubbing — the exclusive pool party. With names like Rehab (at the Hard Rock Hotel — and clearly the best name of the bunch), Bare (at the Mirage), the Venus Pool Club (at Caesars Palace), and the Tao Beach Club (at the Venetian), these new “dayclubs” now make the Vegas “nightlife” a round-the-clock proposition:
Since it began in 2004, Rehab has transformed Vegas’ once-sleepy daytime scene into a “Girls Gone Wild” tableau of debauchery. Today, almost every major casino resort has nightclub operators managing its 21-and-over pools. They hire DJs to spin music and demand hefty cover charges. Rates vary by the weekend; on the cheapest days women pay $20, men $30.
Several resorts have separate “Euro-style,” or top-optional, pools, with half-naked women cavorting in the water. This summer, both the Mirage and Venetian — heavyweights in the nightclub arena — have unveiled re-imagined pools.
“It’s done a remarkable thing to the nightlife landscape,” [the Hard Rock Hotel's Jack] LaFleur said. “Day life? It’s hard to even categorize ! It’s finding those ways to generate revenue. For a town that’s been known exclusively for nightlife, this was extremely daring and off the charts.”
The gamble is paying off.
What will they think of next? Whatever your reaction, you’ve got to admit Las Vegas is a one-of-a-kind laboratory for destination branding. See you at the pool.
Mincing no words, PC Magazine has selected The Worst Technology Names … Ever. In the Worst Product Names category, the winners (or losers, if you prefer) are:
- DigiScent iSmell
- Ogio Shling
- Burning Love Pouch
- Verizon G’zOne
- Pentax *ist Series
- Nintendo Wii
- iMuffs Bluetooth headphones
- Samsung Yepp MP3 player
- Tivoli Audio iYiYiYi stereo system for the iPod
- Zizzle iZ
- Nabaztag (special mention)
- Shuganano (special mention)
In the Worst Application Names category, their picks are:
- Crush or Flush
- Pikipimp
- GIMP
- eefoof
- GigaTribe
- Zamzar
- Grazr
- Reaktor 5 (et al.)
- Joost
- Gubb
Of course it’s a lot easier to mock a bad name (PC Magazine?) than to create a great one, but you do have to wonder what in the world they were thinking in most of these cases.
In the interest of fair play, here’s my quick defense of a few of these:
Although I suspect I’d have taken a different creative tack, strategically speaking the Wii name has done a good job of positioning Nintendo’s platform as the fun, “let’s just play” alternative to the more hardcore PlayStation and Xbox systems.
Joost is at least a better name than Skype!
iYiYi is clearly a play on the iPod brand and the Spanish interjection “ay, ay, ay” — something the PC Magazine editors missed altogether.
There’s nothing wrong with the Reaktor name; it’s a fine name. Native Instruments, the creator of Reaktor 5, is a German company; reaktor is the German equivalent of reactor. Do your homework, PC Magazine!
