Use a wacky agency name at your own risk

A week ago, in a real-estate story about Kevin McKeon’s Brooklyn apartment, The New York Times referred to his ad-agency employer as StrawberryFish. (The error has been corrected in the online version, but we’ve got the hard copy right here.) Fish, frog—what’s the difference? Well, for one thing, the name StrawberryFrog was inspired by an actual creature, the rare Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, and is meant to conjure images of nimbleness and an element of danger. But then, StrawberryFish sounds kind of cool, too. And the StrawberryFish is a real creature as well—it’s another name for the amadavat, which is a kind of red Asian bird. So yes, it is inspiring to imagine the agency hopping over its competition as a StrawberryFrog. But isn’t it just as pleasing to envision it soaring high and far as an airborne StrawberryFish? A name change is probably not in the works as a result of the Times story, but if the confusion lingers, the agency could always consider calling itself StrawberryFrogFish, in honor of the weird, mythical Surinamese creature that so enthralled Londoners in the 1770s.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

December 12, 2005 | Permalink