Comments on: Siffy to Offer Free Wiffy in NYC: "WyFy from SyFy"

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:42:20 +0000

The change of name reminds me of the morphing of Fuddruckers brand name in Idiocracy. Just more evidence that Idiocracy is a true story sent to us from the future. Syphilis is probably one or two iterations away.

By: CatchThis: The Company Naming and Product Naming Blog » Blog Archive » SyFy: Awful Name, Awesome Ad Campaign

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:38:43 +0000

[...] we here at Catchword have pointed out numerous times (here, here, here, here, and here) we can’t stand the new SyFy brand name. However, we are willing to give credit [...]

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:14:37 +0000

Turns out that Landor Associates *didn’t* come up with “Syfy” — the internal marketing department did. Landor tried to get them to go with a different name, but the decision had already been made. (Which Dave Howe has pretty much already admitted to.)

As Rob noted above, the exec director even took the unusual step of distancing Landor from the controversy.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:03:32 +0000

Couldn’t agree more on the crapiness of “SyFy”: http://www.semanticargument.com/?p=175. I like that you’ve tagged this post both “awful names” and “terrible name” just to make sure you’ve covered all the bases. My favorite part of the SyFy debacle is Landor’s attempt to disown the whole thing (http://www.landor.com/index.cfm?do=thinking.blog&post_id=18904&bhcp=1&bhhash=1#top). Hey, maybe it was the client’s “fault,” but it seems a bit unprofessional to point that out.

At one point I’d predicted that they’d pull the whole thing before 7/7, but it’s seeming less and less likely. Do you really think they’ve spent too much on it to turn back now? Running a business based on emotions like buyer’s regret never made much sense to me.