Name changing

[slimjim]

Why did Oil of Ulay become Oil of Olay? And why did Sophie Ellis-Baxtor become Sophie Ellis-Bextor?

[snotmonkey]

i imagine ulay became olay to bring us in line with the rest of europe, 1 product name 1 marketing campaigne, 1 package and its recognizable across the continant. jif cleaner has become cif, marathons are now snickers, opal fruits are starburst the list goes on

[geofbob]

Apparently the Oil is made by the Olay company, and the product was always called Oil of Olay in the US; but three variant names were used in other parts of the world, The name has now been standardised, no doubt making marketing easier, as snotmonkey says. (Perhaps he should rebrand him/herself!) As for Sophie E-B, are you sure she's changed her name? But if she has, she's only the latest in a long, line of showbiz people who have; see, for example, the website at http://www.angelfire.com/music2/courtneysmusicsite
/realnames.html

[WendyW]

I know that this is silly .. but when they changed the name of JIf to Cif .. it made me think of sniff and I haven't bought it since.

[Cactus]

Jif was changed to Cif because some European countries have trouble pronouncing their J's, so therefore couldn't say Jif. My theory on Oil of Ulay follows the same track. People from Spain couldn't say "Ulay", but they had absolutely no trouble pronouncing "Olay". Ok, perhaps not, but the Jif one is true.

[Kelvin]

'Sniff,' WendyW - Makes me think of an abbreviated STD so I won't buy it anymore either.

[Spellmaster]

The divine Sophie has always been Ellis-Bextor. However, some DJs/presenters did call her Baxtor when she first became famous, simply because it's a more common name than Bextor and they assumed her name was Baxtor.

[bobbobley]

interestingly though, Ms Bextor's real first name is apparently Michelle

[William]

My girlfriend went to school with her and she was calling herself Sophie then.

[majorbonkers]

On the subject of Marathon bars, I used to eat one every day. They really did give you energy and I felt the name was spot on. Then one day it became "SNICKERS", a word which sounds naueatingly American (I believe it is their attempt at "Sniggers" or sly little laughs - can't see the connection with a peanut chocolate bar). In England it is reminiscent only of an item of female underwear. I wrote to Mars to complain and they replied with the daft explanation that Marathon had always been Snickers everywhere else but Britain. They enclosed a �3 voucher for Mars products. I used it for Mars bars, not Snickers, and have never had a Snickers to this day. An acceptable German copy can be bought far more cheaply from LIDL.