Thu, 09 Mar 2006

Bullshitis Commercialus

Visiting our local supermarket this evening, I happened across a display for a "new" yogurt - Dannon Activa. What caught my eye was the punchline below the main display: "with Bifidus Regularis™"

Now, I'm not a Latin scholar by any means, but I do know a bit about pseudo-Latin, and this was it beyond a doubt. The "regularis" was a dead giveaway, and the trademark was the icing on the cake. Judging from the trademark rather than a "patent pending" notice, I was pretty certain they'd not patented a bacterial yogurt culture (although in this crazy world that's entirely possible). Obviously a mere advertising ploy - they might as well have named it "Poopus Ontimeus".

A bit of investigation showed that they do indeed name this "proprietary culture" different things in their marketing materials depending on the target country: Bifidus Digestivum in most of Europe, Bifidus Regularis in the US, Bifidobacterium Lactis in Canada, Bifidus Activo in Spain and Digestivum Essensis in Germany and Austria.

I think this is a pretty clear case of an attempt to mislead the public with terminology that appears to be scientific, but it really just a trademarked advertising phrase. I believe that the trademark was put in place, at least in part, to discourage any discussion, as under trademark law any use (even on this humble blog) of the trademarked term requires permission of the trademark holder. Additionally, the use of the term "proprietary culture" implies a patented organism, which this is not.

And that, my friends, is Bullshitis Commercialus. Guess I need to get a trademark.

/Copywrongs | 1 writeback | permanent link

On 3/9/2006 07:18:52
Arwin wrote

P. T. Barnum was right

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