As a copywriter, I’m particularly interested in names. Some I love, such as “Amazon” or “Starbucks,” for their evocative quality. Some I hate (imagine what you will here) and some leave me just plain puzzled. Why is it, for example, that hair salons are especially prone to bad puns such as “The Clip Joint,” or “Hair and Now”? (I suspect that most of these could be more aptly named, “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.”)
In my own neck of the woods, the Metro Boston area, there are plenty of head-scratching monikers to go around. Why is it, for instance, that so many roast beef sandwich shops are “famous” — or at least they say so? I hired a PI to look into the situation. You can see the results below:
Wow – that’s quite a lot of steak-outs there!
Well, I learned as I went along. The first bit of footage was of Billy’s. To get the steadiest image possible, I set the camera on a tripod across the street from the restaurant. Nothing says conspicuous like a tripod-mounted camera, however; within seconds, an employee ran out to intercept me. I managed to reassure him that my motives were benign, but with the exception of the last liquor store, I taped the shots from inside my car.
PS: Gareth, I did enjoy your pun!
You would think the craze for whacko salon names would die out with the customers who rationally thinking would assume that silly names forebode silly haircuts. But alas – not. Here are some from nameyoursalon.com
Lites, Scissors, Action
Cat Got Your Toupee?
Generally Electric Hair Styling
Hair by Hair We’ll Get You There
Cutting Class Heroes
Alice Doesn’t Cut Here Anymore
My favorite salon name:
Curl Up and Dye
(Old Orchard Beach, Maine)
Have you ever seen a liquor store that wasn’t a “Discount Liquor Store”? Where do they sell the high priced stuff?
Edina, Minnesota ( http://ad.vu/auvg )
An Iraqi run hair salon next to the business school I studied at had an interesting name: BAGDAD SALON. I think they had a hard time attracting customers with that name so they later changed it to SAHARA SALON. I don’t know about you, but I keep thinking about dry scalps and dandruff.
I lost it somewhere near “S & M Liquor” … GREAT PIECE!!
In NH we have a BBQ place called “Famous Dave’s”. It is one thing for the food to be famous but in this case, the owner is famous…
Then there’s the infamous Vergina’s in Ocean City, NJ. A very dangerous place for someone with a Boston accent to ask for…