One of the reasons they publish lists of the popular baby names on the web is they hope new parents won’t pick a lemon for their kid. As enlightened as many folks think they are, let’s face it, they make their kids endure some doozies.
It’s too bad some lure companies do the very same thing when they put together their own DBA’s. Sure, I get it. They want that clever, edgy, catchy moniker that will get them noticed. But I wonder: do they always have to pull them from the drop cloth of pop culture?
If you’re planning on starting a new lure company in 2009, here’s some advice: go in a different direction than the following. These have to be some of the worst names in bass fishing.
Workin’ Girl Lures: Okay, so they’re no longer in business. And I even like the guy who started the company. But at some point in time, while you’re shaking hands with the pastor on your way out of the chapel, or when your good wife has to explain the new family business at the women’s club, wouldn’t you feel a little more comfortable with something else? Anything else?
In the same vein, I’m not a big fan of the marketing of Reaction Innovations. Can you spell “r-a-c-y?” There is more skin on the Vixen label than a downtown Vegas handbill. And when you see where they are leading with such names as Barely Legal Vixen, School Girl and frankly, half a dozen others I won’t mention--they’re strictly locker room.
Hey, we’re adults here. I just don’t want my grandkids to think Hustler Magazine is a fishing catalog.
Duh!!! Team: Exceptional baits; dubious nomenclature. Here’s what happens when you grasp for something as fleeting as middle school natter. For a few seasons, we got the message. It was a no-brainer to use this stuff as in, “Duh!!! is obviously the smart choice.”
In the beverage business, you could compare it to that moment of clarity when the guy in commercial says, “I could have had a V-8!”
But in time, the lingo fades away like everything else on the teen scene. The irony is lost and all that’s left is just, Duh. And that doesn’t sound quite so smart, does it?
Bassectomy Lures: Apparently there isn’t a lot going on up in Aurberry, or the little chuckle we all got when we first heard this one would have died long ago. Unfortunately, the name has nothing to do with fishing, and wouldn’t even exist if it didn’t lead into the tag line, “A cut above the rest.”
Frankly, it’s more like a paper cut these days. But no, I don’t want you to stop buying their baits—just quit laughing about ‘em. It’s an ugly name.
Boogerman Lures: Somehow this product line matriculated to Illinois and has intermittently offered a nice line-up of buzzbaits. But I never liked its Hillbilly rendition of that dangerous night creature (Boogey Man), and I certainly can’t condone its gamers’ namesake—Boogerman, that nose-picking genie from the 1990’s.
Bass fishing has enough image problems. We don’t need marketing that makes “guys” look as dumb as a bagel. Carl’s Jr. already does enough of that.
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