Coke's Verbal Creativity is Lacking

Last week the Coca-Cola Company announced the upcoming launch of an innovative new plastic bottle made partly (30%) from sugar cane and molasses. This new packaging is fully recyclable, and is said to reduce carbon emissions by as much as 25% over the product lifecycle. Dasani will be the first drink to be sold in the new bottle, followed by vitaminwater next year.

Naturally, I applaud this move. I hope the next few decades see the gradual disappearance of toxic petroleum-based packaging in favor of more renewable choices. So why am I bothering to post this story? Actually, it's because of the name of this new plant-based bottle.

PlantBottle™. They jammed together the two most generic words to describe it, and then trademarked the result. Granted, the "P" and "B" sounds do go well together, given their common plosive (meaning an expulsion of air from one's mouth) nature. As a site note: linguistically, "B" is a voiced plosive, meaning your vocal cords vibrate when you make the sound.

As Seth Meyers might say on Weekend Update, "Really, Coke?" It's hard to believe that's the best name a multi-billion dollar company and all its ad agencies could come up with. Just off the top of my head, here are a few alternatives:

EcoBottle
BioBottle
FlexiBottle

...more to come.