this and that

This may be a trend I’m starting- phoney words consisting of a combination of words(insert obligatory hyperlink here) as a subject line to blogs. This weeks installment is “fabutackalious”. It means an annoying person that over-uses a boring and/or tacky portmanteau. (ex. fabulosity, gi-normous, and the always clever-”guesimate”) What really tops it off is the look of accomplishment on the person’s face when they say these words. Priceless. What does this have to do with adverstising you ask? In 2005 Revlon had an ad for mascara that they were using to try to position themselves as better than Maybelline. Maybelline’s “Great Lash” has been around for possibly 5000 years, and all mascaras are compared to it. The ad that Revlon had for their new line, get ready for it…”FABULASH” was pretty funny. It was “Why settle for great, when you can be fabulash?” I personally refused to try this mascara based on the annoyance factor the name produced. What were they thinking to go after Old Faithful, and to use that name?

I guess this was part of the “confident sexiness” positioning that Revlon had started in ‘02. Has it worked? I think it has. When looking at the packaging, ads, and overall “feeling” of the drugstore brands of makeup, I’d say they seem to be more sexy than the plain-jane Maybelline and Cover Girl. But-does the feeling or label make me personally buy one over the other? No. I buy what works best, if I didn’t that would be redonkulous.

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