Brand Names That Have Become Everyday Words

Some products are so common they enter the common vernacular as nouns. The proper term is “genericized trademark” and corporations spend fortunes to prevent this from happening to valuable brands. Certain examples are well known, such as Kleenex. (A friend of mine is actively trying to get people to refer to all MP3 players as iPods. He has his own reasoning…)

The entries are list were selected because I find them to be surprising and worthy of attention. For example…

Seeing Eye Dogs

This one shocked the hell out of me and inspired this article. Official “Seeing Eye” dogs are only trained at ONE school, located in New Jersey. The wait for one of these highly specialized guide dogs can last as long as four months. The non-profit organization is called The Seeing Eye and houses handlers during their training with dogs.

These dogs have more training than the average American worker.

Established in 1929, The Seeing Eye pioneered the use of guide dogs in the United States and their work continues today. Golden retrievers, German shepherds and Labrador retrievers are the breeds mostly commonly used as “Seeing Eye” dogs.

Zipper

An array of continuous fasteners have been patented since 1851 but the actual name “zipper” comes from the B.F. Goodrich Company. In the 1930s, the company was looking for ways to market a previously patented fastener design that was being used on rubber boots.

Zippers were never intended to withstand substantial pressure.

Around the office, workers referred to the fastener as the “zipper” because it could be closed with one hand. The name simply stuck and use continues to this day. Fun Fact: Roughly 90 percent of the world’s zippers are made in Japan and most of those are made by the YKK Group.

The Jacuzzi

Originally intended as medical equipment, the Jacuzzi has become a staple among wealthy executives and swingers. The Jacuzzi family were machinists that emigrated from Italy at the beginning of the 20^th century. After one of the members was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis, the Jacuzzis began developing a hydrology treatment based on their water pump designs. The original Jacuzzi was released in 1955 as a simple pump that people used in their tubs at home. In 1968, the company began marketing a full bath we now know as the Jacuzzi.

Pictured: American ingenuity.

Jacuzzi exploded in popularity during the 1970s amid the spa craze and was sold in 2006 for nearly $1 billion. The company’s technology was so reliable that the US Navy relied on Jacuzzi water pumps to power patrol boats during the Vietnam War. These water pumps allowed the patrol boats to operate without propellers, giving them greater maneuverability.

Band-Aids

A million companies produce adhesive bandages but there’s only one Band-Aid. Created in the early 1920s by a long time employee of the Johnson & Johnson Company, Band-Aids have become synonymous with childhood injuries and do-it-yourself projects gone awry.

This is how corporations make their products racially sensitive.

In 1951, the company debuted specialty designs containing popular characters, like Superman and Mickey Mouse. The Johnson & Johnson Company owns the trademark on Band-Aid meaning that similar products can only be referred to as adhesive bandages. Fun Fact: The stupidly catchy Band-Aid jingle, “I’m Stuck on a Band-Aid”, was written by Barry Manilow.

Heroin

This small amount would probably sell for $5K nowadays.

One of the world’s addictive and dangerous narcotics, heroin had been independently synthesized a few times before a German pharmaceutical company (today known as Bayer) began marketing the drug in 1898. Heroin was originally intended as an over-the-counter cough suppressant but was quickly regulated by lawmakers. Along with Aspirin, Bayer lost the right to claim trademarks on heroin as a result of provisions in the Treaty of Versailles.