Friday, May 16, 2008

A new god in the pantheon of dumb names.


I've waited more than 24-hours but I still can't stop thinking about the new name of the new agency formed by Wire Paper and Plastic (WPP) to serve Dell globally. The agency's name is Synarchy.

Thus, Synarchy is the esteemed winner of only the second "Worstie" that Ad Aged has awarded.

Even within the padded walls of corporate WPP the response to this name (which sounds like a neologism of sin and anarchy--not usually a good combination unless you're in the orgy business or presiding over the fall of Rome)has been less than affirming. Ad Age reported "If Synarchy doesn't work out, DaVinci will have to turn to a list of other monikers that appear to be have been batted around. Among them: "Sector 64," likely a nod to computing history and 64-bit processors; and "Refute," which, obviously means to disprove or counter. Both of those names were also filed earlier this year with the Trademark Office by WPP Properties Young & Rubicam Inc."

This is how you name something? With such little confidence that you assert there's a possibility of it not working out?

For the folks at Synarchy, WPP, Y&R and Landor (who led the naming effort) here are a few of my suggestions for your consideration:

Sorrell's Corral.
The Marketer in the Dell.
Go to Dell.
No No CEO.
And so as to appear modern and inexplicable--a word I've coined that combines "empathy" with "temptation," two emotions most advertisers would like to appeal to:
Empty.

5 comments:

Tore Claesson said...

Empty is a good name.
You start empty and then you begin to fill it.

Tina said...

if anarchy is bad, synarchy is good. i love the syn part. it feels bad in but in a good way.

george tannenbaum said...

i think anarchy is good. at least in advertising. after all, if you think about it, naming a computer company apple is an act of anarchy.

Tina said...

i totally agree. at least apple means something- has some really great attributes, nyc, temptation, healthy. synarchy- wtf. blah. yeah whateva.

Laura said...

I thought synarchy was derivative of synergy and anarchy or maybe even archery (huh?).

What about the now defunct interactive agency, Nethod? It was supposed to rhyme with "method", but not everyone used that logic, calling it Net Hog. Is that one a winner, too?