> Flu: Rub BenGay on forehead, temples neck. Allow the heat to sooth your headaches away!

I know this is more than anyone wants to know and more than I want to divulge but…

A long time ago, I was having a really bad tummy ache, it was 2 am or something. I didn't know where the tummy medicine was, but I had a tube of BenGay in my room. I rubbed BenGay on my stomach, it got really nice and warm and my ache went away.

a lot ot these remedies are centuries old (vinegar). that a brand should be part of the suggestion is relatively recent (there are exceptions, like coca cola and christmas or something like that or the other way round or something) and, of course, an indication of the savoir faire (or lack of) possessed by the would-be advisor.

i have an ulcer. i have tried putting salt on it. it seems to help.

i see you have a nasty scrape. perhaps an application of ointment would soothe.

see-no need for a brand name.

conversely, imagine what brouhaha could ensue:

my goitre is acting up like mad. this hot mars bar unguent seems to be have no discernable effect.

or

i can't seem to stop these dry heaves. the suggested use of the ipod as suppository has so far only contributed to my discomfort.

castor is not a brand.

vinigar in your hair, on open cuts, smeared on bruises, dropped in your ear, pressed onto sunburns, and massaged in to calluses sounds like a whole lot of stinging and smelliness.

i think i prefer my brand names, my neosporin for cuts, aloe vera for sunburn, and after-itch for the mosqitoes...

but speaking of one thing with many uses, did you know that peppermint is good for "anxiety, bloating, common cold, cough, depression, diarrhea, flatulence, headache..." etc.

aloe vera is not a brand.

if this happens again you'll all start scaring me . . .

but speaking of one thing with many uses, did you know that peppermint is good for "anxiety, bloating, common cold, cough, depression, diarrhea, flatulence, headache..." etc.

I debated between listing vinegar, peppermint or baking soda...

I had never thought of BenGay being used for such reasons... either of them. Good to know.

I was just having a conversation with my wife over the weekend about brands. Mind you, she's not a designer but half Filino and spent about 10 years growing up in the Philipines.

Over there, she says that everyone refers to objects of their leading brand name. They don't wear jeans, they wear Levi's.They don't use toothpaste, they use Colgate. They don't write with magic markers, they write with Pentapal's (sp?).

And of course here in the south, the majority of us don't drink sodas or soda-pops, we drink cokes. Even if it's Pepsi or Dr. Pepper.

So I think yes, the mutli-million advertising has paid off.

> Should we say that all the multi-million dollar advertising has paid of? Or is it a matter of brand association?

But I don't get the difference you are trying to establish with your questions Bryony... isn't brand association a result of the multi-million dollar advertising?

like coca cola…

which is good to treat asthma, constipation, diarrhea, dry hair, flatulence, food poisoning, indigestion, jellyfish stings, nausea, sore throat, vomiting; and is good for cleaning bathtubs, bloodstains, eyeglasses, milk stains, toilets, and skunk spray odor. Intriguing how many of these are also “fixed” with vinegar…

from Michael H. "But I don't get the difference you are trying to establish with your questions Bryony... isn't brand association a result of the multi-million dollar advertising?"

i'd go further (using those two little 'slip-ups' -castor oil and aloe vera-as examples)-isn't the pervasiveness of "things-as-brands" (not just association, but as a method to explain and define emotions, phenomena, objects, functions, actions etc.) a result of the social experiment-albeit a slipshod, haphazard, rather abitrary one-of branding?

But I don't get the difference you are trying to establish with your questions Bryony... isn't brand association a result of the multi-million dollar advertising?

Should we say that all the multi-million dollar advertising has paid of? Or is it a matter of brand association?

Sorry if I was not clear. By brand association I refer to being linked to the “coke” group, or the “pepsi” group. I am sure they both remedy the same ailments, due to the similarity in ingredients, but you might say “use coke to…” while I might say “you need to get your self a can of pepsi and…” Both of them have multi-million dollar adverting behind them. And yet, another might refer to the local brand (that nobody outside of his town recognizes).

Another example would be the use of Tupperware. This product has a very different meaning for my mother than it does for me, due to the advertising created for each generation, and yet, when I think about containers, only one name comes up: Tupperware.

"things-as-brands"

A while back we had a great discussion about how this has come to affect/influence the world we live in, and how indeed as societies we have integrated many brands into our vocabulary — starting by (Google, Googled, Googling, Googleth…)

(using those two little 'slip-ups' -castor oil and aloe vera-as examples)

Sorry. I was going by this book, and did not realize Castor Oil (as he was using it) was not a brand. My bad.

that was entirely my bad about aloe vera.

it won't happen again :)

to Byrony's point - kleenex is another example of a brand that emcompasses a product. i've never asked for a facial tissue in my entire life.

(graham, does that make up for my mistake?)

there have also been many articles about the most recent version of Webster's Dictionary, and how much slang has permeated our culture and vocabulary - exactly the "google" example just given, i.e., there was a sex in the city episode about Carrie "googling" her boyfriend. i don't have time now but if i can find some stuff about that later i'll post it.

> Castor Oil (as he was using it) was not a brand.

It does sound like Castrol.

this hot mars bar unguent seems to be have no discernable effect.

the suggested use of the ipod as suppository has so far only contributed to my discomfort.

My sides hurt from laughing—do you think a paste of Junior Mints applied with a Wacom Stylus might help?

Oh where is the poster competition when you need it?

to Byrony’s point - kleenex is another example of a brand that encompasses a product. i’ve never asked for a facial tissue in my entire life.

i, myself, love a game of flying disc...

people give me the weirdest of looks for saying this, but my mom used to have me take a great big huge spoonful or two of yukon jack and honey when i had a bad cough. it worked like a charm, i’d sleep the whole night. i’ve never asked her why she always used yukon jack. was it due to some effort by yukon jack? ”kids got the cough, give �em a shot” i’ve always assumed it was what grandma did, etc. etc. i’ll get back to you on that one.

these “remedies” have existed in other cultures for thousands of years. look at herbal medicine. not the take-some-st.-johns-wort-for-a-good-day kind of recent, but the true practice of herbal medicine. that was built on the idea that x herb combined with y herb helps with z ailment [okay, so that is very over simplified]. but my point is that the practice was not based on a companies herbs, but the ingredients itself. i’m sure there is something like an age cut off, but i knew well over half of those uses for vinegar. and who else are you going to buy white vinegar from but hienz...i got nothing, kroger maybe? i have absolutely no idea if branding has infiltrated and influenced the practice of herbal medicine, but i can’t imagine that it hasn’t. actually i know it has: the take-some-st.-johns-wort-for-a-good-day kind. duh!

sorry just an interesting tangent for me...but it raises some questions:

which comes first? the brand remedy such as coke or heinz white vinegar, or the actual remedy independent of a brand. do the companies create the remedies as part of the brand or do they take advantage of existing remedies to further the exposure of their product? when is it a brand remedy vs an ingredient remedy? and how about negative brand remedies like a coke will strip chrome and tarnish off metal (just make sure you save some of that miracle metal cleaner for a refreshing drink afterwards). how do these come into play?

design maven? or anyone else that has the answers. at this point i just assume...

the new nov issue of weird has an interesting article on the death of brands as the lack of consumer loyalty. will this mean a move back to ingredient based remedies due to the lack of brand loyalty and the search for the best value? does kroger white vinegar sanitize as well as heinz?

it also comes with a cd of 16 virtually copyright free songs by some prominent (beastie boys, david byrne [talking heads for the un-enlightened] chuck d) and some not so prominent artists (which i will not name to avoid embarrassment of naming someone prominent but unknown to me) articles about the new copyright license is very interesting in it’s own right.

there’s my brand plug...long live wired.

i’m done now,

really.

All this talk of how so many well known brands can be used as health remedies makes me wonder what the brand owners think of all this. Is this yet another reason why seemingly silly legal disclaimers appear on packaging? Does the book come with it’s own legal disclaimer?

I can see the excitement (as a brand owner) in having a brand name replace an object’s common name, but to associate a brand name with an unconventional use which could lead to a negative brand experience would trouble me.

Halloween tip: Crisco removes stubborn face paint.*

(*if redness or burning occurs, discontinue use.)

Has anybody seen Chris Rock's routine on Robitussin, from Bigger & Blacker? I found a couple of lines on Google:

"Scrape your knee? Rub some Robitussin in there. Sprain your ankle? Soak a towel in some 'tussin and wrap it around your ankle..."

It's funnier when you see it.

< "things-as-brands"

Like Band-Aids. Ever since I was little, even if it was some random brand name, it was always "Band-Aid" for my boo-boos. "Band-Aid" is so close to "bandage" in the way it sounds-a very shrewd brand name.

I can see the excitement (as a brand owner) in having a brand name replace an object’s common name

Actually, this is a double-edged sword. When the brand name replaces the generic name for a product the brand name loses a lot of its meaning & power.

For example, here in the UK anything that vaguely resembles a Jeep Cherokee is called a jeep. Newpaper classifieds are full of Suzuki Vitara jeeps for sale. So when Chrysler says, "There's only one Jeep," it doesn't have so much resonance.

Also, people here don't vacuum the floor; they hoover it, probably with a Dyson.

In the long term this can lead to the loss of the ability to protect your brand name. (I think Xerox went to court over this once, but I'm too lazy to look it up.)

This is why companies do things like this: A few months ago I read on one of my son's Lego instruction books that the product should not be referred to as Legos, but rather as "Lego brand building bricks"

On the one hand Google has to love Googling on Sex in the City. On the other, they are dreading the day when someone says, "I was googling on Yahoo this morning..."

Perhaps when Ms Millman is done carousing with Marian & Tan, she will have more to say on the subject.