Which things have you avoided or embraced on the name alone?
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?
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.
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,
I've made a game titled Diarrhea 4 because someone mentioned that as a potential game name. Does that count?
I thought Breaking Bad was a stupid name. I didn’t give it a chance until like Season 3. Same, as another said, for Game of Thrones.
So easy! Whatsapp!
Dumbest. Name. Ever.
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.
What an embarrassingly dumb name.
Avoided: Captain Laserhawk - A Blood Dragon Remix. The title is just so ....edgy. I took one look at it and immediatly lost all interest.
Spoiler: Big mistake. Once I did finally try it out, I immediatly binged all 6 episodes and was devastated that there wasn't more. Fair warning tho, the 18+ rating is completely justified.
Embraced: The Owl House. I had no idea what the show was even about, but the name has a nice ring to it so I got curious and gave it a try ... with a similar result as mentioned above (binge it all and be devastated that there isn't more of it)
Semi-related tho not about the name: I refuse to shop in ANY store that has a self-checkout. And by that, I do not mean that I just refuse to use the self-checkout - I will reject the entire store for that sh*tty business decision. You either employ enough actual cashiers or you can go jump in the lake. Yes it is petty and childish, but I still feel it is justified.
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!
I've been playing World of tanks blitz. I had fun, then discovered there is a world of warships blitz as well, which has a Dutch line of ships. It was the 1st game I heard of with Dutch content, so I'm now kinda hooked on it, chasing after all Dutch ships. It wasn't exactly the name of the game, but more the hint of the content.
BTW I'm Dutch, when you haven't guessed it already. ;)
I have one that I don't think is shallow or petty. I avoid the Wondergrove cannabis company because there is a children's show/educational program of the same name. While state regulators are making cannabis brands who have made no attempts to advertise to or appeal to children change their packaging to single color designs to reduce their appeal to children, there is a weed brand named after a kid's show that calls its flower line "Field Trip." I call it "Kid Weed" because it makes me think of the WKUK Kid Beer sketch. And I don't buy it.
There was a place near where I used to live called The Bargin Store. I tend to avoid places that can't spell their own name correctly.
It wasn't the name alone that did it, but I got the Newbury Comics pressings of Phanerozoic I and Phanerozoic II (by The Ocean) on vinyl because A) the name is cool, and B) the pressings looked cool. Turns out the albums sound cool too.
I gave The Crazy World of Arthur Brown a try because of the album artwork. Turns out it's now one of my favorite albums.
I'd heard Ziltoid the Omniscient was good, but what really won me over was the album artwork. Between the cheesy name and cheesy artwork, I had to give it a listen. It's easily one of the greatest albums of all time.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
I've been considering getting one of Intel's Raptor Lake cpus.
Uh, I'm trying to think if there's anything else. There have been games that have caught my eye purely because of the name, but none of them were that great iirc. I think Risk of Rain mighta been one of them, and that one was pretty good; but most of the games I've tried based on name alone were pretty meh from what I remember.
Oscar Meyer products. I've never eaten one knowingly and I plan to keep it that way.
Ford
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.