I’ve nothing against the company Breville. I’ve had a Breville toaster that developed a fault, and I went straight out and bought another. I went to buy a kettle a while ago, and the coolest design I could find under £30 was a Breville. So I currently own a kettle and toaster. See:
But this week I went into Tesco, and happened to spot this interesting marketing exercise:
This made me laugh out loud. It’s a kettle. It boils water. I’m sure it does a great job of boiling water. Likely as good (if not better) than my current Breville kettle.
But some organisations are so well known, that they (or popular culture) misappropriates their name to create a verb. People don’t “search” for anything online anymore. They “google it”. People don’t video-call their friends abroad, they “Skype” them. The popular brand (sometimes) becomes the term for that thing. I don’t “sell my kidneys online”, I “eBay” them. So with that in mind, some clever person has set about rebranding and reclaiming “the quite dull act of changing the temperature of water”.
I’m sure a massive company like this has done their research, but of course, a slight problem with this idea, is that “boil” is not a word just used where plain old water is concerned. You also boil vegetables. You might boil-wash your underpants. I don’t imagine I’d be trying that in this kettle.
“Brevilled egg please.”
“Will that be soft or hard Brevilled, sir?”
“Boil” is also used for other purposes. Like as a general temperature description.
“Man it’s Breville-ing in here! Turn on the air conditioning ffs!”
Maybe that should be “Brevilling”?
Anyway, you might see where I’m going here. I think there’s a huge oversight in assuming that the word “boil” is most commonly thought of as something to do with cooking or heating. Because let’s not forget, it’s also:
“an inflamed pus-filled swelling on the skin, caused typically by the infection of a hair follicle.”
(Source: http://oxforddictionaries.com)
“How are you today Dave?”
“Oh not bad. I’m off to the doctor today about that Breville on my arse.”
It’s no worse than “boil in the bag”, I suppose (just the idea of that makes me feel slightly queasy). I just can’t see it catching on. Right, I’m off to Breville the kettle for a cup of tea….Argh!…damn you marketing geniuses!
Worse, for Breville, if it does catch on, they may find their trademark becomes “genericized” and is able to be used to refer to other brands’ kettles and sandwich toasters (“Brevillers”?)
Usually brands try to *prevent* their trademarks from becoming genericized in this way; Xerox, Kleenex and Hoover are the typical examples.
Oh yes – you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that.
Or Sellotape. Or Blu-tac. Could be a massive disaster for them.