POPwink

Today, PETA suggested that New Hampshire Community Technical-College Manchester, who is asking the public to help rename its institution, call it KentuckyFriedCruelty.com Community College.

PETA Assistant Director of Factory Farming Campaigns Matt Prescott had this to say about it:

“Changing its name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com Community College would be a win-win situation for the school,” says Prescott. “It would give the college the most unique name in all of academia, and it would add to the pressure on KFC to stop turning a blind eye to animal suffering on a massive scale.”

They may have had a shot at it, but unfortunately the suggested names had to be submitted by October 26th.

I know this was a beak in cheek suggestion, (at least I hope so), but it is a way for PETA to get their message out. I hope they take every opportunity to enter every naming contest for pandas, streets, grade schools and small children.

Don’t ask me why I was looking at WorldPoultry.net, but they are reporting that “Following Kiotech International’s acquisition of Agil at the end of 2006, the company has rebranded to become Kiotechagil.

The article goes on to quote a company official in a very press-release fashion:

“Our aim is for Kiotechagil to become recognised as the leading player in supplying high performance natural feed additives which enhance health, growth and sustainability in aquaculture and agriculture,” said CEO Richard Edwards. “Our drive to build closer ties with leading research organisations should also lead to an enhanced product portfolio.”

“With our new Kiotechagil brand we now have a clear focus on becoming a leading supplier of natural feed additives to the aquaculture and agriculture industries,” said Edwards.” In addition, with a strengthened management team we can concentrate on developing new products for our customers and opening up in new territories in addition to the 50 countries we currently serve.”

What is weird about this is I see this same information in places like ThePigSite.com (that’s right) and the aforementioned WorldPoultry.net, but the company itself does not have the press release on their own news page. To continue the weirdness, each of the two combined companies are still each operating individual websites under their own names without any overt mention of their affiliation.

It seems to me they need to actually combine into one company now that they have announced their new name and rebranding as Kiotechagil.

So I go to check GoDaddy.com and to my surprise saw that Kiotechagil.com was available. I would have thought that sometime during the rebranding process, someone would have thought to buy the domain name. But no, it was unclaimed. So, I bought it before some quick thinking squatter snapped it up to hold it hostage. I, on the other hand, have only altruistic designs. I will transfer it to them, no questions asked.

Well, I may ask them why they didn’t register the domain name. Oh, and why the new name is just the old names smashed together.

Update: They contacted me, and I, the humanitarian, gave it to them. They couldn’t believe I didn’t want anything in return. Pay it forward.

At first I thought this was some sort of joke, but it looks like the real thing.

In a recent domain name auction the Dallas Cowboys bid on and won the domain name Cowboys.com for $275,000. Problem is, when the Cowboys proxy bid “275″, they apparently thought it was $275 not $275,000. Really? Come on.

Anyway, here is the full story with a bunch of updates and links.

I’ll leave it to you to use the appropriate sports analogy (i.e. fumbled the pass, dropped the ball, swing and a miss, etc.).

Bottom line, Cowboys backed out (looking like idiots) and the domain went back up for bid and resold to a real buyer for about $100,000 more than the Cowboys pretended to buy if for.

Broadcasting & Cable reports that “Network Makeover Sentences Brand of 16 Years to Obscurity”. That brand? Court TV.

I commented on this in July, but could not help but take another pass at the new moniker of Court TV.

Here is a quote from the article:

“Although Turner said it worked with three naming companies that produced 4,500 potential names, it was Juris [Marc Juris, Court TV’s general manager] who came up with “tru.” Not only did it sum up what he and other Turner executives thought the network’s primetime programming was — true stories — it is also the last three letters of “Court” spelled backward.“

Oy.

This is the new logo/tagline to go along with the new name:

Merriam-Webster defines actuality as “something that is actual :
fact, reality”

Soooo, the tagline could be translated to:

Not Reality. Well, OK, I guess it’s Reality

Tru dat.

Gigglesugar offers the Match the Weird Kid Name to the Celeb Parent, and asks:

“Do some celebs name their children unusual and just plain freaky names because they think their spawn is too special for an ordinary name? I think that might be it. Either that, or they want to add difficulty to what would otherwise be a charmed and easy life.”

In any case, it’s the nanny’s problem. She’s the one calling them to dinner.

I got a 6/10, but I was not really invested in getting a good grade.

The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission has a new slogan/logo:

ST. LOU IS…ALL WITHIN REACH.

Get it? St. LOU (do the locals call it that?) IS ALL WITHIN REACH. st. lou is in all lower case and ALL WITHIN REACH is all caps, go figure. Of course, you might expect that they would include a stylized Gateway Arch nod.

I don’t like the splitting of the name to make multiple words, especially when part of the split word makes no sense on its own. What really bothers me though is what does ALL WITHIN REACH mean? Why does that make me want to go there? Why is it unique? I mean, Federal Way, Washington is also all within reach and Odgen City, Utah is also all within reach. Maybe it means that it is a miniature city? I don’t know.

All in all it is not worse than its immediate predecessor, “Hello. My Name is St. Louis”, which made it sound like a salesman at an out of town convention.

I h ope th ey re think th is slog an at som e poi nt.

Update: Even the Mayor is confused. On his blog he asks:

“St. Louis All Within Reach”

We like it. Do you?

Rather than asking….”St. Lou is all within reach”

We like it. Do you?

Update 2: St Louis Dispatch Columnist Bill McClellan adds an extra “is” when he talks about the slogan in his column as:

“St. Louis is all within reach.”

The Associated Press reports that after 19 years of battle, officials at Sioux Gateway Airport have thrown in the towel and have stopped trying to get the FAA to change their identifier to something less deprecating. After being offered such choices as GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV and GAY, they decided instead to embrace the SUX and make it part of their advertising campaign and newly designed website flySUX.com.

I think it’s great. As far as branding goes, I will now always remember how Sioux City SUX.

In my email today:

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We’ve noticed that customers who have purchased or rated books by Neil Fiore have also purchased Colder Than A Fart In A Dead Eskimo by David Allen. For this reason, you might like to know that Colder Than A Fart In A Dead Eskimo is now available. You can order yours for just $17.49 by following the link below.

I think they meant this David Allen.

Filling a void in the on the go kosher food niche is the literally named Kosher Vending Industries, LLC. They are providing fast kosher food in the “Hot Nosh 24/6” vending machine.

For the gentiles in the bunch, the 24/6 is to reflect Orthodox Jew’s belief in not using electricity on the Sabbath. Pretty clever.

Here is the kosher menu:

3 types of Hotdogs/Sausages

Deep Dish Cheese Pizza

Mozzarella Sticks

Veggie Cutlets

Potato Knish

Onion Rings

This is not brand new news, but they are expanding and I thought I’d be a mensch and mention them.

Now eat, you are skin and bones.