Fun_People Archive
20 Feb
"Hey! We found a word that's not trademarked yet!"

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 97 17:43:17 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: "Hey! We found a word that's not trademarked yet!"

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: rmw@netscape.com (Robert Waugh)

Reebok Changes Name of 'Nightmarish' Shoe

Copyright 1997 by Reuters / Wed, 19 Feb 1997 10:52:02 PST

STOUGHTON, Mass. (Reuter) - Reebok International Ltd. said Wednesday it will
change the 'nightmarish' name of one of its women's running shoes.

Reebok has shipped 53,000 pairs of its "Incubus" shoes in the last year,
but found out only Tuesday that the name is that of an evil spirit that
rapes women in their sleep.

"We apologize," said Dave Fogelson, director of public relations with
Reebok. "Certainly it is very inappropriate."

He said the company found out about the embarassing name after running an
advertisement for it in an Arizona newspaper.

Fogelson said Reebok must find 1,500 new names for products each year and
did not properly research the meaning of incubus when it found the name was
not trade-marked.

"Obviously it became very apparent to us yesterday why nobody else was using
the name," he said.

The Webster's dictionary defines incubus as "an evil spirit ... that has
sexual intercourse with women while they are sleeping."  Incubus is also
described as a "nightmare" or "one that oppresses or burdens like a
nightmare."

Fogelson said the name does not appear on the shoes, which have a suggested
retail price of $57.99. But the company will take steps to remove the name
from its boxes for the shoes.

"What people have to understand is this was an honest mistake," he said.

© 1997 Peter Langston