quinta-feira, 14 de junho de 2012

Update On Previous Names In Trend (2)






Another year has passed, a new ranking has been released. Let's see how all the Names In Trend have done the past year.

First, the boys:

Ryder

It has climbed from #135 to #108, and seems to be a huge threat to next years top 100. It fits right in with the cool cowboy names trend that parents are loving on their boys.

Karter

Climbing over 50 places the past year, there seems to be no stopping this one. K- names are very trendy for boys, and this one is no exception.

Rhys

After being super trendy the past few years, it unfortunately crashed in 2011 when it fell 15 places. Not too significant, but I wonder if Reese going feminine is making parents reconsider any spelling of that name. It's too bad.

terça-feira, 5 de junho de 2012

Movie "John Carter" - Floppy Name?




So the sci-fi movie "John Carter", played by actor Taylor Kitsch, was released earlier this year and was met with mixed reviews. However, what caused a lot of commotion was how it turned out to be a flop of epic proportions, causing Disney a loss of over 200 million dollars.
One of the most cited reasons as why this movie flopped was its unappealing title, "John Carter". When you do a sci-fi movie, people are looking for intriguing titles that catch your attention, and unfortunately "John Carter" just doesn't do it since it's a super common, safe, boring name. Not the kind of name you associate with aliens, mystery, adventure, space, etc. One quick look around the net and nearly every review mentions the badly named titled as one of the worst things about it.
Marketing a movie is super important to attract viewers, especially in a difficult time like nowadays, where less people are willing to pay to go the cinema. Disney failed by meeting one of the most important criteria of movie marketing: having an appealing name.
A name like John has been handed over to more than 5 million men in the US alone - Adding the last name Carter and it sounds like he's a policitian, perhaps a plumber, or an ordinary old man living next door to you. The same would apply to names along the lines of James, Robert, Richard, Daniel or Michael. It really was a huge error that could have easily been avoided.
Now not only has Disney's chairman quit his position, but "John Carter" has cemented itself (and the name) as one of the biggest movie flops of all time. I guess Shakespeare's "what's in a name?" also applies to movies.