The nightmares of product naming in a global economy
Last week was spent preparing for the (thankfully brilliant) ME Awards and helping to moderate 24/7's Digital Moves music conference.
But I can't tell you how much my load was lightened by the news that Verizon announced a new phone called the Razzle.
Now, I've no doubt the majority of readers will have no idea why this so cheered me - especially readers who are under 30 or live outside the UK.
But British men who, like your correspondent, are going handsomely grey at the temples, will recall Razzle as a gleefully filthy and downmarket porn mag that reached its 'peak' in the eighties.
Razzle was not Playboy. In fact, it was the anti-Playboy – making a virtue of the fact that its models were next door types in cheap pants, who often pulled down said grubby undergarments in front of gasworks or in car parks.
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Feminists turn away now, but it was also famous for the Razzle 'pile-up' or 'stack', in which these cheery young girls would form a human pyramid of flesh and nylon. It felt disgusting then, but now that genuinely horrible stuff is a mouseclick away, it suddenly seems comically British. Carry On Perving, if you will.
So is Verizon, that most chaste of US operators, using the Razzle handset to ease its way into adult content after years of refusing even the Playboy logo on its deck? No, of course it's not. I'm just having a bit of fun.
Mind you, I was speaking to a US 'late night' specialist the other day and he assured me that the US operators are quietly looking at 'mature' content. Staring at it for hours, I wouldn't wonder.
He said the operators have been appraising their Euro counterparts' content controls and age verification systems as they prepare for, er, entry. Apparently, financial pressure may finally be outweighing moral concerns.
I'll believe it when I see it. Remember when Telus tried to introduce relatively softcore content behind age verification in 2007? A whirlwind of religious anger descended; there were mass staff resignations. And that was Canada, Godless liberal Canada.
Whatever, the Razzle news still cheered me up. And served as a reminder of the nightmare of product naming in a global economy.
Recently we had Corby – not just a new Samsung phone but also a horrible East Midlands town that may well have been the scene of a Razzle stack.
