Which things have you avoided or embraced on the name alone?
Is it shallow, or petty, to decide based on name alone? Yeah, pretty much, but there’s probably something, a product or service or site, that the name has made you gloss right over it or jump to it ASAP.
What are some examples that spring to mind for you?
Thought of another! I don’t have opportunity to go there anyway, cos they’re not in my country, but I always thought In-N-Out Burger was a uniquely terrible name.
So, it’s a burger that will be in and out. Why will it be in and out? Are you going to vomit it back up? Or is it because it’ll give you diarrhea? Or what else could In-N-Out mean? Sex? Why are you making me think about sex in such proximity to vomit and diarrhea? Honestly, I’m not hungry anymore.
I always thought it was a deliberately horrible name to court controversy, but it turns out the owner is a conservative Christian so it may be genuine tone deaf idiocy.
I lived in a city, had occasional need for a car. A car club would have been ideal. Don’t need to spend thousands on a car upfront, don’t need to deal with maintenance, don’t need to secure parking.
Problem? The only car club in town was called whizzgo. Like, a toddler word for urination. Written on all the cars in big colourful letters. No thanks.
So hopelessly of its time, namely that moment when the word “app” was the coolest thing ever among normies because iPhone.
And, cherry on the top, coined by geeks with language skills so poor that they thought “app” rhymes with “up”, which it absolutely does not to anyone who speaks English properly.
When I shop on Amazon and see the obvious China companies that sell the same product but have the strangest names. Definitely avoid those products. If I see a.company only ships via fedex, I avoid doing business with that company. Dang, I know I have more just can’t think of them right now with morning brain.
Edit: I avoid many major brands too. I belive them to be selling because of the name alone rather than having a quality product anymore. Dr Scholls is one of those,
yeah, I do still buy from Chinese companies sometimes, but only if they are smart enough to use a name that doesn’t sound like someone just used a random password generator and said “good enough”… or … whatever the Cantonese equivalent of “good enough” is, I suppose.
I thought Fight Club was a boxing movie and had no interest in seeing it. I only saw it because I tried downloading Jackass on Kazaa and it ended up being Fight Club. The intro had me hooked.
I don’t eat tofu, nor been around folks that do (or do and talk about it), so I’m whiffing here. Is it because tofu spoils when left open, or is there a pronunciation part I’m missing?
Does judging books by their cover count? Seems like in the same vein…
In the 90s, I avoided Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series books because the Baen covers were awful, and at the time she hadn’t written books for any other publisher so I didn’t get introduced to her via that route. In the 2010s I finally read her books…and I was mad as hell that they’d put such ugly covers on them back in the day, because I would’ve been crazy about this series in the 90s!
in the same vein, I’m so glad they reprinted Glen Cook’s Black Company books, because no one I tried to get interested in them would read them with the old covers. I’m not sure even I did. I certainly can’t imagine I deliberately chose to pick up a book with this cover.
I used to! I picked up a set of Black Co at a used book store to try and loan out. finally didn’t come back after I “lost” the cover and apologized for the state of the book I was loaning. but got another convert, so a win in my book.
Trying out new things in life is an effective way to learn something new about yourself and the world around you.
Part of why I’m asking tbh! I’m blanking on stuff I’ve avoided based on names, but I’m hoping some replies here might highlight them as, “Avoided but…!”
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