A Name We Can Trust
We have been following the Sun-Times’s search for a new Miss Lonelyhearts, and the other day we thought we met the one. Her name was Emily True, and as soon as we heard it we wanted to pour our heart out. “Dear Miss True, all is confusion and turmoil. Please advise.”
It’s a major marketing decision. What do the people want? What will they pay to read?
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As the bona fide Ms. True intends to become the first Emily in space, the Sun-Times must look elsewhere. It’s a search we are eager to assist in and we have asked far and wide for suggestions. A colleague observed that names with a lot of “X”es in them get remembered. Yes, we said, but do people trust Exxon? Would Chicago accept “Ask Trixie Fox”?
We took our quest to adman Bob Aurin, who’d proved his worth by christening Two Fingers tequila and Twin Sisters vodka. Aurin worked up his proposals under “four basic strategies.”
We contacted the New York firm of Lippincott & Margulies for further insights. Lippincott & Margulies is preeminent in the name game. They named Humana, Amtrak, and Duracell, just for starters.
“Helen Reddy.”
We read the prognostications avidly. When they favor our chosen team, hope pounds in our heart. When they consign it to fifth or sixth place (as 10 of 11 sportswriters at the two dailies did to the Boston Red Sox a year ago), a delicious sneer crosses our face. In short, it makes no difference what the experts tell us as long as they tell us something.
