[imitchellg5]

Anybody catch this SuperBowl ad? I know the Cold War ended nearly 20 years ago, but this seems incredibly disrespectful to the people who lived in fear of the KGB under the reign of the USSR for decades. Perhaps I'm biased since I know a Russian woman who saw her sister get shot in the head by the KGB, but at some point did anyone involved with this company step back and say, "Wow. I'm being a huge arse and this is a really terrible idea!?" Might as well start selling home security systems called Schutzstaffel.

EDIT: I'm looking at their website and they were founded in 1992. A year after the Cold War ended!

[Oisín]

Video not available outside the US … but for an information service, that is a rather unfortunate choice of name. Not necessarily disrespectful, but definitely not one that’s going to win them any extra customers.

[residentEvil]

that was your first commercial for them you saw? they have been playing for over a year now. i think the buckner ad came out around the 2008 world series time.

[ghporter]

I've seen their ads for a while. I like the ads, but I agree that calling ANYTHING "KGB" is a bad idea. The Soviet KGB produced way too many bad memories, and the world is way too globally linked to think the connection won't be made, especially about an "information service."

[residentEvil]

when OpenVMS boots (yes; that is my main computing background), either on a VAX or Alpha platform; they had many "fun" references in their boot sequences, including CIA and KGB in their system setups.

[Big Mac]

KGB ads have been all over TV for quite some time now. And yes, it's a retarded name and I wonder who's behind it.

[The Final Dakar]

I must be immune to stupid internet trends, because the name doesn't bother me.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I must be immune to stupid internet trends, because the name doesn't bother me.

This isn't an internet trend.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by residentEvil 

that was your first commercial for them you saw? they have been playing for over a year now. i think the buckner ad came out around the 2008 world series time.

LOL. Well, it's been a year since I really watched TV at all (the last SuperBowl).

[The Final Dakar]

"Clever" names isn't an internet trend? What world do you live in?

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

"Clever" names isn't an internet trend? What world do you live in?

It's a trend, but it certainly isn't limited to the internet.

[The Final Dakar]

Nice backpedal, sucker.

[SpaceMonkey]

The internet trend is "clevarrr" names. Please.

[Captain Obvious]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

The Soviet KGB produced way too many bad memories,

Not to Gen Y
That's the target demographic

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious 

Not to Gen Y
That's the target demographic

I forget that Americans don't know crap about history. Which is why I'm majoring it in.

[Chuckit]

Everybody's talking about them lately. Sounds like a brilliant marketing decision to me.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

The Soviet KGB produced way too many bad memories,

Originally Posted by Captain Obvious 

Not to Gen Y
That's the target demographic

Gen Y-targeted products tend to migrate all over the place-or rather the market that uses those products migrates and expands. This sort of stupid name is something that comes around to eventually bite the user of the name in their collective hinies.

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

I forget that Americans don't know crap about history. Which is why I'm majoring it in.

Please: "most" Americans don't know history. Some of us actually do have a clue, even about things we haven't lived through.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

I forget that Americans don't know crap about history. Which is why I'm majoring it in.

I don't even know where to start with this post.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Gen Y-targeted products tend to migrate all over the place-or rather the market that uses those products migrates and expands. This sort of stupid name is something that comes around to eventually bite the user of the name in their collective hinies.
Please: "most" Americans don't know history. Some of us actually do have a clue, even about things we haven't lived through.

Obviously I didn't mean every single American doesn't know history. I know that many love history. But as a nation, Americans know much less than Europeans seem to. Perhaps a better way to put it is that they are ignorant of it. Just like most are ignorant of geography. It really pisses me off.

[KeriVit]

Resounding LOL! (to Laminar)

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

I forget that Americans don't know crap about history. Which is why I'm majoring it in.

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

Obviously I didn't mean every single American doesn't know history. I know that many love history. But as a nation, Americans know much less than Europeans seem to. Perhaps a better way to put it is that they are ignorant of it. Just like most are ignorant of geography. It really pisses me off.

You are essentially saying the exact same thing. But you added more stupidity. And you are still wrong.

[imitchellg5]

Could you explain why rather than just saying I'm wrong?

[The Final Dakar]

We should look up the stats of how many Americans are ignorant of history via KGB.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

Obviously I didn't mean every single American doesn't know history. I know that many love history. But as a nation, Americans know much less than Europeans seem to. Perhaps a better way to put it is that they are ignorant of it. Just like most are ignorant of geography. It really pisses me off.

I think it's more like Americans know less European history than Europeans do. Which makes perfect sense.

[imitchellg5]

That's true. But it seems like us Americans get our own wars very confused, especially Civil vs Revolutionary.

[The Final Dakar]

Civil vs. Revolutionary? Was that the war where the South marched to Britain for the right to throw tea parties?

[imitchellg5]

Yes, that's the one. Same thing happened with Vietnam too.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

That's true. But it seems like us Americans get our own wars very confused, especially Civil vs Revolutionary.

Well. I haven't really seen that, but I run in very highbrow circles.

[imitchellg5]

Sitting in my European history class a few nights ago there were two girls arguing about which came first...

Anyway this argument doesn't matter. What matters is that people ignore previous precedents and do stupid things that could have been avoided by looking at the past. Like naming an information service KGB.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I've seen their ads for a while. I like the ads, but I agree that calling ANYTHING "KGB" is a bad idea. The Soviet KGB produced way too many bad memories, and the world is way too globally linked to think the connection won't be made, especially about an "information service."

What bad memories did the KGB give everyone? Hell one of their own has been ruling Russia since Yeltsin drank his way off stage.

[SpaceMonkey]

For all your pest control needs, call Auschwitz Extermination.

...too soon?

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey 

I think it's more like Americans know less European history than Europeans do. Which makes perfect sense.

And vice versa, naturally.

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as ‘the Revolution War’ (?), though I gather from Dakar’s post it’s just another name for the whole independence thing?

But seriously, Europeans are no better than Americans at history in general. I have a classmate (in university, doing a degree in comparative Indo-European linguistics, i.e., studying pretty much nothing but history, though from a linguistic point of view) who’d never heard of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and didn’t know that World War I was ‘kickstarted’ by the assassination of its throne heir in Sarajevo.

[The Final Dakar]

Yeah, apparently someone really hated Franz Ferdinand's music.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as ‘the Revolution War’ (?), though I gather from Dakar’s post it’s just another name for the whole independence thing?

It's known by a lot of different names here, mostly the Revolutionary War or the war for independence, etc.

[The Final Dakar]

I bet the War of 1812 would really confuse Oisin.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I bet the War of 1812 would really confuse Oisin.

You’d probably win that bet. (I know nothing about it, except it was something between the US and Britain—I always just assumed you invited the Brits over for another tea party to settle some unfinished business from last time)

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

You’d probably win that bet. (I know nothing about it, except it was something between the US and Britain—I always just assumed you invited the Brits over for another tea party to settle some unfinished business from last time)

Basically. Although Britain recognized American independence by treaty in 1783, in many ways in practice it did not, leading to continued hostility (with justification, the British also claimed that the United States was not completely living up to its obligations under the treaty, either). The war was also the result of it eventually being impossible to remain neutral to both Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars, which had been American foreign policy's primary aim since independence.

[residentEvil]

specially since the war of 1812, lasted long after 1812.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

It's known by a lot of different names here, mostly the Revolutionary War or the war for independence, etc.

No, the war for independence was the Civil War.

[osiris]

No, that was Pearl Harbor. The Civil War was when the Germans - hello, HITLER - crossed Canada into the Louisiana purchase in exchange for beads and blankets.

As for KGB, meh. I can use the internets for my own information, and I'm never wrong. hah.