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September 22, 2009

Your Corporate Identity Ran Over My Grammar Book

There are any number of companies with names that have become synonymous with the product or service they sell. "Xerox" used to be a good example of this, but it seems like it's been ages since I've heard Xerox used as a verb. (Which is a pity, as there probably aren't any other verbs with two Xs.)

Anyway, these types of companies jealously guard their corporate brand, and they encourage writers to always use ®, ©, or ™ when referring to them. Case in point, this gentle reminder from Kleenex (®, ©, and ™) which espouses corporate identity even as it flouts the laws of punctuation in a very silly way. (It seems like "Help us keep our identity ours" would be the most graceful solution, though I suspect there are at least three other possibilities.)

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