Do you remember the old Reese's Cup ads that were a little confrontational? "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" And then they discover that the whole was better than the sum of it's parts and both go away happy.
Ok, so... do you remember when FedEx bought Kinko's? To me this rang with the possibility of Reese's Cups. Two great things that taste great together. I still called the store Kinko's (kinda the way that I call Reese's a peanut butter cup) even though they changed the sign to FedEx Kinko's. But today I just noticed that they changed the sign to FedEx Office. It's like the chocolate got rid of the peanut butter. What's up with that? Further, this makes me feel like they are waiting for me and my breed to die off because I know that for years (possibly years and years) I will continue to call it Kinko's. I will refer to it as Kinko's when talking to friends and co-workers. When I'm looking for another one I will ask people if they know where the Kinko's is. Kinko's has my share of mind and I'm perfectly happy with that. Good luck, FedEx, on making me change. I think of you when something absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, not when I need a copy of my D&D character notes (which, uh, yes, is why I was there today).
One entertainment from this, of course, is that it shows how Generica (the parts of America that are so generic that they are identical from place to place) has recreated in odd ways the feel of small town America. In another ten years knowing what used to be Kinko's will be like old-time directions. Instead of "remember old Johnson's field where that cow used to stand, take a left there" it will be "you know the place that used to be Kinko's, it's right next to that."
Dag-gummit.
Synchronicity! I was thinking the very same thing a coupla weeks back when I had to do some business with my local "FedEx Office." I'll never stop thinking of it as Kinko's. Even though I worked there a coupla times, and kinda hated it, I grew attached to the name. FedEx is shooting itself in the foot.
ReplyDeleteThanks for making sure I don't feel alone!
ReplyDeleteI assume that there might be some cost associated with keeping the old name (royalties or something?), but my advice would be that the price was worth it. Share of mind.