Hidden marketing

Common words that started as brand names, can you guess them all?

Image: Diggity Marketing

Ever asked for a Band-Aid when you really meant any bandage? Or told someone to Google something even if they used another search site? We all do it, and we don’t even notice, and that’s because some everyday words we use are actually trademarks that belong to specific companies. Here, we’ve just gathered just a few, but you may end up realizing you sound like a walking commercial more often than you thought.

Image: Trew

Cold weather hits, your lips get dry, and you ask for a ChapStick. But unless it says ChapStick on the tube, you are probably just using a regular lip balm. Wyeth LLC owns the trademark, and they made it official in 2009. By then, the name was already rolling off everyone’s tongue, so it stuck for good.

Image: Possessed Photography

Every cut, scrape, and blister seems to call for a Band-Aid, even when the box actually says something else. Johnson & Johnson trademarked the name in 1925, and it became the word we all use without thinking. Kids, especially, never say "adhesive bandage." It is always a Band-Aid.

Image: The Drink Break

That little blue-and-white jar might not really be Vaseline, but who is checking the fine print? Unilever owns the name, and technically, it just refers to one brand of petroleum jelly. Yes, that’s the generic term. Still, most of us reach for the name Vaseline whether we are soothing dry skin or covering a scrape.

Image: Wander Fleur

Moving boxes are stressful, but Bubble Wrap makes up for it. Sealed Air Corporation owns the name, trademarked in 1983, but we call just about any sheet of cushioning bubbles Bubble Wrap. And let’s be honest, we care less about the trademark and more about the fun of popping it.

Image: Jacob McGowin

"Throw it in the Crock-Pot" has become kitchen shorthand for slow cooking. Sunbeam registered the name in 1972, and it quickly became part of family dinner traditions. The generic term is slow cooker, but to most of us, Crock-Pot is the only name that matters.

Image: Jure Zakotnik

Table tennis might be the proper term, but Ping-Pong is the one most of us grew up saying. The trademark dates back to 1931 and belongs to Escalade Sports in America. Still, when friends set up a folding table in the basement, nobody calls it table tennis. Ping-Pong just feels right.

Image: Jarritos Mexican Soda

Hot summer afternoon, kids run to the freezer, and what do they want? A Popsicle. Unilever owns the trademark, registered in 2001, but really, they are ice pops. Try calling them that and see how many eye rolls you get. Popsicle is the word that stuck.

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That rip of Velcro is instantly recognizable. The company Velcro Industries trademarked the name in 1975, but technically, it is called a hook-and-loop fastener. Try saying that three times fast. That’s why Velcro won the word war, simply because it is fun to say and easy to remember.

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When was the last time you told someone to "Bing it"? Exactly. Google became such a dominant name that it turned into a verb almost overnight. They registered the trademark in 2004, but by now "Google it" means "look it up," no matter which search engine you use.

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Not every real estate agent is a Realtor. That word was trademarked in 1950 by the National Association of Realtors, and it refers only to members of the group. Still, most people toss it around for any agent who shows them a house. It is another case where the trademarked name became the everyday word.

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.