Genericized brands

Posted by RogerDodger457@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 69 comments

Help me think of things we called by the brand name regardless of the actual brand. My grandma called the refrigerator the ‘fridgdaire’ even though it wasn’t that brand. It was funny too because she spoke broken English and my 10yr old self thought she was saying the ‘fridge-over-there’.

Love the nostalgia these bring!

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thejunkmanadv@reddit

Davenport

Barcalounger

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RogerDodger457@reddit (OP)

What’s Davenport known for? I’ve never heard of it.

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thejunkmanadv@reddit

It is a couch.

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atampersandf@reddit

IBM PC

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PilotC150@reddit

They were all marketed as “IBM Compatible”.

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Indubitalist@reddit

And then IBM got too ambitious and made its own operating system, “OS/2” that made the phrase “IBM Compatible” confusing and sometimes technically wrong, and began IBM’s slide into irrelevance in the consumer world. It’s a shame. I was actually excited about OS/2, they just expected a win right out of the gate and abandoned it too early.

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atampersandf@reddit

Warp wasn't even the first version of OS/2. It was a neat OS, I used it to host a BBS back in the day. It had actual multitasking which Windows didn't have at the time.

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red286@reddit

It also, unlike Windows, came with an uptime guarantee. If you experienced more than 9 hours of downtime in a year due to an OS issue, they would refund you the price of the OS.

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EnvironmentalPack451@reddit

"Clone"

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RogerDodger457@reddit (OP)

That’s right! Every new computer was that

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BadConscious1358@reddit

Speaking of generic brands, did your grocery store have that generic brand that just put everything in a white box/bag with black letters describing exactly what was inside? My mom never bought that stuff but I always wondered how good it was.

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random9212@reddit

Often times the generic and brand name product are made in the same plant (not necessarily the same ingredients though).

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red286@reddit

(not necessarily the same ingredients though).

Usually not, particularly when you're talking about foodstuffs. I remember my mom used to always insist that they were the exact same, until one time I sat her down and made her eat a can of del Monte peaches and can of No-Name peaches.

They taste nothing alike. You can absolutely tell that the del Monte peaches were actually ripe when they were canned, unlike the No Name ones which I assume they figured would ripen in the can or some shit.

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CommissionPuzzled839@reddit

gif

Otto!

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shawn615@reddit

I remember my grandparents buying potato chips and mac n cheese like that. I remember loving the chips because they were extra salty. I bet I haven’t thought of that in 30+ years. Thanks for the memory!

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RogerDodger457@reddit (OP)

This is exactly what I was hoping for!

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Gravy_Sommelier@reddit

The No Name brand has become kind of iconic in Canada.

One of our main grocery chain's cheapest store brand features very plain yellow and black packaging on all their food and household goods. The quality is decent for usually being the cheapest option.

Recently, they started applying the same branding to things like camping chairs, towels, coolers and other goods.

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PilotC150@reddit

Dumpster

Invented by George Dempster. It was the Dempster Dumpster.

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red286@reddit

I remember a friend of mine refused to call them Dumpsters and called them Smithrites, which was a local brand of dumpster.

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Philly-South-Paw@reddit

Era appropriate is Rollerblades

They're actually In Line Skates

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mareimbrium53@reddit

Rollerblade is a brand name? Wow, TIL.

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red286@reddit

What threw me for a loop was finding out that Jetski is also a brand name. I knew Seadoo was, but I assumed "jet ski" was the generic term, but turns out, it's the brand name for Kawasaki's personal powered watercraft.

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Philly-South-Paw@reddit

From Wikipedia:

Inline-skates had been used for many years by ice speed skaters before they became mainstream. For the first few years after Rollerblade was developed, Rollerblade, Inc. were the only manufacturer of in-line skates that had worldwide distribution. This allowed the company to capitalize and grab a huge percentage of the world market share and almost total dominance of the North American market with aggressive advertising campaigns and sponsored in-line-only sporting events.[12] The term "rollerblades" has become a generic trademark for inline skates in general.

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brodievonorchard@reddit

In those early years, you had to get the brand name or they were garbage. Like to the point of being barely functional. It took at least a couple of years before they had genuine competition.

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RogerDodger457@reddit (OP)

I know right!?

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YourStarsAlgonquin@reddit

One effing joke and now I can't wear mine.

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blue_suavitel@reddit

Q tip

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sevalle13@reddit

Google it

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CoffeeJedi@reddit

Styrofoam

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bivo979@reddit

Band Aids

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Traditional-Jicama54@reddit

My cousin worked for one of the divisions of 3M that made bandages. She broke us all of saying band-aid instead of bandage.

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Dogrel@reddit

Q tips, Kleenex, Coke, iPhone, Hoover, Allen wrenches, Windows, Excel, Word, Band-aids,

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AccountantMelodic862@reddit

All the GLP-1’s are “Ozempic.”

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cmgww@reddit

Similar to how all ED medications are “Viagra”…

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MeButSecret@reddit

"Googling"

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ilovecostcohotdog@reddit

Don’t you “Bing it”?

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EnvironmentalPack451@reddit

I ask Jeeves

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Rust_Bucket37@reddit

Lycos go fetch!

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Unapologetic_Canuck@reddit

To a lot of parents it seems that anything video game related was a Nintendo when I was a kid.

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MrsSpookyMulder47@reddit

Kleenex and Xerox.

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misterlakatos@reddit

Puffs really tried to take out Kleenex in the '90s.

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Deep-Interest9947@reddit

A nose in need deserves Puffs indeed

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RogerDodger457@reddit (OP)

And it didn’t work.

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misterlakatos@reddit

Indeed. I do like Puffs and still use them sometimes.

But yeah - everyone says Kleenex.

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Express-Cow190@reddit

Zamboni

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OrangeAugust@reddit

Zambonis aren’t all zambonis?

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random9212@reddit

They are Ice resurfacers. Zamboni is the most well known but OLYMPIA is another popular brand and I am sure there are other manufacturers as well.

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Fantastic_Honey_7425@reddit

As a law nerd with an interest in intellectual property, genericide is a really interesting phenomenon. Saran Wrap, Kleenex, and Aspirin are all good examples!

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OrangeAugust@reddit

I never knew that about Aspirin until a couple years ago when I was trying to find aspirin in the store (i usually use other pain relievers) and I was getting so annoyed because I couldn’t find just aspirin and then I happened to notice that there was aspirin under the brand name Bayer. It seems like you’ll never see aspirin in a bottle that just says aspirin? There’s various brand names?

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