Don't Say Velcro (2017)
A humorous Velcro marketing campaign urging people to say “hook-and-loop” instead of “Velcro” prompts debate over trademark law and “genericide,” where brand names become generic terms (like aspirin, escalator or hoover) and risk losing legal protection. Commenters trade examples from many languages and industries, note similar efforts by companies like Google, Adobe, LEGO and Xerox, and question how effective or sincere such campaigns really are when widespread colloquial use is already entrenched.
Overview of Velcro trademark issue
- Velcro is running a humorous campaign telling people not to use “velcro” generically and to say “hook-and-loop” instead.
- The stated goal is to avoid trademark genericide, where a brand name becomes the generic term for a product category.
- Many commenters note that in everyday English “velcro” has already been generic for decades.
Trademark law & genericide (as discussed)
- Several comments explain that trademark rights can be weakened or lost if the owner doesn’t actively defend them.
- Distinction made between:
- Common colloquial misuse by the public (hard to stop).
- Allowing competitors to market products using the mark (must be fought).
- Some argue genericide is overblown and few marks have actually been lost recently; others cite examples like escalator and aspirin.
- Trademarks are framed as consumer-protection tools: if a word is used for any brand, it no longer signals origin and may lose protection.
- There is some confusion in the thread about whether generic use alone kills a mark or failure to police it does; explanations tie the two together.
Reactions to Velcro’s campaign
- Many find the videos clever, funny, and effective both as marketing and as legal “CYA”; some law courses reportedly use them as teaching material.
- Others view the whole thing as cringe, a “psyop,” or pointless because language use is already settled.
- Some see the cutesy legal tone as manipulative corporate PR; a few react negatively enough to say they’ll avoid the brand or deliberately say “velcro” more.
- A common view: Velcro likely benefits from generic use in practice but must publicly oppose it for legal reasons.
Genericized trademarks & language examples
- Numerous examples across countries: xerox for photocopying, hoover for vacuum, coke for soda, kleenex for tissues, Google as a verb, Lego, Rollerblade, etc.
- Many languages have their own generic terms for hook-and-loop fasteners: “scratch” (French), “Klettverschluss” (German), variants meaning burdock tape, thistle stripe, tangle band, “dry zipper,” and others.
- Several note that “hook-and-loop” is an awkward, confusing name, which likely hinders adoption.
Broader reflections
- Some people consciously avoid generic trademarks (“web search” instead of “google”).
- Others deliberately genericize disliked corporations’ brands as a form of low-cost resistance.