Failed organisational name changes

[Bald Rick]

I never understood the point of that change, and there's just something about the very word "snickers" that really grates on me. Like you I still want to say "marathon" even after all these years. I don't know what it is I so dislike about "snickers" — it isn't just that it's a silly name (though it is!) (For a really silly name, what about the car that calls itself a "duster"?)

I think the more pertinent question is why were Snickers bars ever called ‘Marathon’ in this country - they were always Snickers from their first introduction in the US in 1930

 

[hexagon789]

I think the more pertinent question is why were Snickers bars ever called ‘Marathon’ in this country - they were always Snickers from their first introduction in the US in 1930

The "Snickers" was named after the family horse, so I'm not sure what Marathon was trying to accomplish either!

 

[Hadders]

Though some of the non-CWS ones do, e.g. South Midlands or whatever it's called. You can save but not spend points.

South Midlands Co-op was taken over by CWS in 1992
CWS changed it's name to Co-operative Group (CWS) in 2000 and then to just Co-operative Group in 2007

There is mutual acceptance of Co-op membership cards across certain Societies. Midcounties Co-op (the old Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester plus West Midlands Societies) and Central England Co-op (Midlands and Anglia Societies) accept each others cards, iirc.

 

[BrianW]

Not sure if I'm going off-topic here-

Notwork South East
Con Ex
East Coast
First
Notional Express
Real frit

 

[pdeaves]

Not sure if I'm going off-topic here-

Notwork South East
Con Ex
East Coast
First
Notional Express
Real frit

OK, I can see all these (or what they are supposed to be!), except the last one. What's that one?

 

[BrianW]

Supposed to be Railfreight Groanworthy?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I never understood the point of that change, and there's just something about the very word "snickers" that really grates on me. Like you I still want to say "marathon" even after all these years. I don't know what it is I so dislike about "snickers" — it isn't just that it's a silly name (though it is!) (For a really silly name, what about the car that calls itself a "duster"?)

Same with me. I'm not certain what causes that grating feeling with the name, but I do wonder if it has something to with it sounding so similar to the verb 'sniggers', which has fairly obvious unkind/unpleasant connotations.

EDIT: Out of interest, I just checked the etymology of 'to snigger'. Somewhat ironically, it turns out that back in the 17th century, it actually was 'snicker' and at some point since then the spelling/pronounciation changed.

 

[BrianW]

Same with me. I'm not certain what causes that grating feeling with the name, but I do wonder if it has something to with it sounding so similar to the verb 'sniggers', which has fairly obvious unkind/unpleasant connotations.

EDIT: Out of interest, I just checked the etymology of 'to snigger'. Somewhat ironically, it turns out that back in the 17th century, it actually was 'snicker' and at some point since then the spelling/pronounciation changed.

I think you'll find this discussion is just what the marketing and ad people want! The more you question the ridiculous name ...

 

[scotrail158713]

I think you'll find this discussion is just what the marketing and ad people want! The more you question the ridiculous name ...

Guess what I now fancy getting when I go to the shops later today

 

[Bletchleyite]

With regard to that specific brand, it's a bit like "sneakers" which has an obvious (Americanised) association with running, i.e. marathons.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

"Snickers", the Marmite of the confectionery world!

Is it true that the story about Chevrolet hilariously naming one of their motor cars as the "Chevy Nova" ("Nova" being Spanish for "it doesn't go") is actually an urban myth?

 

[nlogax]

With regard to that specific brand, it's a bit like "sneakers" which has an obvious (Americanised) association with running, i.e. marathons.

Frank and Ethel Mars founded what became Mars Inc. in 1920. Once their business had really established itself they moved east to rural Pulaski, Tennessee where they bred horses at Milky Way Farm (which still exists to this day). Their pride and joy was a race-winning horse named Snickers, and after Snickers died the chocolate bar bearing its name in tribute was released in 1930. And now here we are

 

[Bald Rick]

Frank and Ethel Mars founded what became Mars Inc. in 1920. Once their business had really established itself they moved east to rural Pulaski, Tennessee where they bred horses at Milky Way Farm (which still exists to this day). Their pride and joy was a race-winning horse named Snickers, and after Snickers died the chocolate bar bearing its name in tribute was released in 1930. And now here we are

You forgot their cat, Minstrel. He was a Maltese.

 

[nlogax]

You forgot their cat, Minstrel. He was a Maltese.

Ooof!

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Notwork South East
Notional Express

We Are Going Nowhere was always my favourite.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

The whole of the Midcounties Co-Operative retains the old green logo and branding. They also appear to be struggling, after offloading 8 stores in Leicester last summer.

As has been pointed out, Midcounties aren't in Leicester, that's Central England. But also Midcounties aren't retaining the green branding - they're moving to their own branding based on the International Co-operative Alliance logo, which is different to the cloverleaf used by the (Manchester) Co-operative Group.

 

[cactustwirly]

As has been pointed out, Midcounties aren't in Leicester, that's Central England. But also Midcounties aren't retaining the green branding - they're moving to their own branding based on the International Co-operative Alliance logo, which is different to the cloverleaf used by the (Manchester) Co-operative Group.

I got confused, midcounties is Shropshire.

 

[edwin_m]

I think you'll find this discussion is just what the marketing and ad people want! The more you question the ridiculous name ...

...the more the discussion turns into a Marathon?

Is it true that the story about Chevrolet hilariously naming one of their motor cars as the "Chevy Nova" ("Nova" being Spanish for "it doesn't go") is actually an urban myth?

Vauxhall certainly did that with the vehicle that was know outside the UK as a Corsa.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Vauxhall certainly did that with the vehicle that was know outside the UK as a Corsa.

Anyone done one up in TPE livery yet to go with their naming, which must have caused amusement in the factories of CAF?

 

[edwin_m]

Anyone done one up in TPE livery yet to go with their naming, which must have caused amusement in the factories of CAF?

I'm sure one of the "cruisers" has that on their to-do list.

I guess their push-pull set was "no va" as far as they were concerned, because it wouldn't go anywhere without the loco from Stadler.

 

[bussnapperwm]

Blue Diamond. It lasted just over than a year before converting to Diamond Bus fully integrating with Diamond Bus Ltd' Red/Black Diamond (despite sharing the diamond name, blue diamond didn't accept black diamond tickets. Even when it was central connect too it didn't accept diamond passes despite both being Rotala!)

 

[90019]

Is it true that the story about Chevrolet hilariously naming one of their motor cars as the "Chevy Nova" ("Nova" being Spanish for "it doesn't go") is actually an urban myth?

It's a myth - the Nova actually sold well in Spanish speaking countries in South America.

Vauxhall certainly did that with the vehicle that was know outside the UK as a Corsa.

Somewhat interestingly the Corsa name actually came first, as the car wasn't launched in the UK as the Nova until about 9 months after the initial launches in other European countries.

 

[AM9]

It's a myth - the Nova actually sold well in Spanish speaking countries in South America.


Somewhat interestingly the Corsa name actually came first, as the car wasn't launched in the UK as the Nova until about 9 months after the initial launches in other European countries.

A far bigger car misnaming in some countries was the Mitsubishi Pajero. It was a name of strength in Japan, but as a Spanish word it meant a jerk, as in worthless person. In Spanish speaking latin american nations it meant worse, - a person who self-gratifies, not to put it too finely!

 

[90019]

I think someone spotted that one, so they called it the Montero in Spanish speaking countries.

Along similar lines would be the MR2, which dropped the 2 from the name in France and Belgium due to it sounding rather close to the word merde.

 

[EveningStar]

I recall a tale as a callow youth from around the time when all the Polytechnics got upgraded to University status. The story went that Newcastle Polytechnic was going to merge with Newcastle University and that the new entity was to be henceforth known as the Combined Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

But it's equally possible that the tale was started by a wag.

No merger ever mooted. What actually happened was the Polytechnic, where I just started work as a very junior lecturer, was to become 'City University, Newcastle upon Tyne'. Announced to widespread derision in our staff newsletter, only for the staff newsletter to announce a few weeks later we were not, after all, going to be City University, "because of objections by another City University". Slightly unfortunate, as a number of my colleagues had already devised some imaginative marketing slogans that repeated here would get me moderated out of existence. Instead, we became University of Northumbria at Newcastle, with the safer acronym of UNN. There followed a few weeks of letters in the staff newsletter discussing, in a most cultured and literary manner, derivations of the word onanism before the editor cottoned on and closed the subject. (We are now Northumbria University, suffice to say are now quite grown up and have a marketing department who stop us making silly mistakes.)

Sadly, my copies of the newsletter were thrown before I woke up to how this would become an urban myth and doubtless all remaining copies were discretely pulped, so you just have to take my word on all this.

Or maybe I am telling a good yarn ...

 

[43096]

We Are Going Nowhere was always my favourite.

Forever Getting Worse (now Goes Wrong Regularly, of course)
Garnett's Non-Electric Railway (when GNER's boss wanted to rip the overhead wires down permanently), also Gets North Eventually Railway.
Slow Wobbly Trains

 

[DH9]

I recall a tale as a callow youth from around the time when all the Polytechnics got upgraded to University status. The story went that Newcastle Polytechnic was going to merge with Newcastle University and that the new entity was to be henceforth known as the Combined Universities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

But it's equally possible that the tale was started by a wag.

Not quite. Newcastle Polytechnic was looking for a new name on becoming a University in 1991. The name alighted upon was City University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

This is from a comment to an article on the Independent website. I can't be bothered to retype the whole story so I've cut and paste from the below. The article describes it as an urban myth unfortunately, but I remember it happening as does other user "EveningStar".

City Diary

FRESH FROM going public with his decision to quit Creation Records, the company he founded 17 years ago, Alan McGee has turned up as one of the backers of a music Internet site being set up by a former head of Virgin Entertainment, Robert Devereux. The venture, Clickmusic, aims to be the number...

www.independent.co.uk

(Scroll down to comments and click on "open comments".)

"As regards the old story about Northumbria University nearly calling itself "City University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne" before the initials were spotted, I can actually confirm the story, being an alumni. I was not there at the time, however, I lived in the area. I was explicitly told when I started there in 1999 that upon conversion from Newcastle Polytechnic, the new university got as far as printing all the stationary and signs to go up around campus before they were contacted by UCAS as regards their new initials. Northumbria University was a hurried name they came up with, with student applications about to start, adding "at Newcastle" when they realised no-one would know where Northumbria University was. The story was a University of Newcastle student had slipped the name into a suggestion box and not one person [at Northumbria-to-be] spotted the initials problem until UCAS contacted them. While the university did a great job of disposing of all the signs and stationary that they were on the brink of deploying, it didn’t stop lecturing staff at the time relaying the "anecdote" to rooms full of students and hence the story got out. The story even made Tyne Tees television at the time as an "and finally" story".

The logo Northumbria University has changed a few times over the years, as you can see in the below. It's a guess that the second logo represents what was going to be used (based clearly on the first "Northumbria" logo), however, I was a student over at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the time (i.e. the other place), later going on 8 years later to have a post-grad spell with Northumbria. I remember the Tyne Tees clip, which was broadcast at teatime at the time it happened. I think it was a young Dawn Thewlis who reported on it, who now works for the BBC in Newcastle.



As regards the merger story, this was mooted a good eight or nine years later but fizzled out before it was taken too seriously. If anything, the merger would have effectively been a takeover of Northumbria by Newcastle and "University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne" would have been used for the merged University. This happened to UMIST when it got taken over by the (Victoria) University of Manchester.

The misnaming and merger stories are separate. The latter merger story may well be an April's Fool joke dating from around 2000.

 

[DH9]

No merger ever mooted. What actually happened was the Polytechnic, where I just started work as a very junior lecturer, was to become 'City University, Newcastle upon Tyne'. Announced to widespread derision in our staff newsletter, only for the staff newsletter to announce a few weeks later we were not, after all, going to be City University, "because of objections by another City University". Slightly unfortunate, as a number of my colleagues had already devised some imaginative marketing slogans that repeated here would get me moderated out of existence. Instead, we became University of Northumbria at Newcastle, with the safer acronym of UNN. There followed a few weeks of letters in the staff newsletter discussing, in a most cultured and literary manner, derivations of the word onanism before the editor cottoned on and closed the subject. (We are now Northumbria University, suffice to say are now quite grown up and have a marketing department who stop us making silly mistakes.)

Sadly, my copies of the newsletter were thrown before I woke up to how this would become an urban myth and doubtless all remaining copies were discretely pulped, so you just have to take my word on all this.

Or maybe I am telling a good yarn ...

That's just it. I remember the "City University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne" story as I discussed in my previous message above (you have a "," rather than the word "of" being the only difference). You're not imagining things at all!!!

The chatter about the merger, however, I do remember. I'll qualify that by saying it may have been just talk around about the 2000 mark and given it happened in Spring, the merger chatter may have been an April's Fool joke.

I could tell loads of silly tales about the place.

 

[AM9]

With the same potential resultant misnomer, a few years ago there was a programme (ISTR on BBC2), chronicling the creation of Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association. The organisation came from her 'Clean Up National TV' campaign in the mid '60s. Allegedly, (maybe apochryphal), nobody noticed until just before a major presentation in Coventry I believe, one of her acolytes noticed the potentially disasterous error!

 

[DH9]

With the same potential resultant misnomer, a few years ago there was a programme (ISTR on BBC2), chronicling the creation of Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners Association. The organisation came from her 'Clean Up National TV' campaign in the mid '60s. Allegedly, (maybe apochrypal), nobody noticed until just before a major presentation in Coventry I believe, one of her acolytes noticed the potentially disasterous error!

It was apparently shortened to "Clean up TV" after Mary Whitehouse's husband noticed what the initials spelt.