Whee! Friday, May 05, 2006

I nominate the Nintendo Wii (pronounced "we") for the stupidest name for a product ever. Here are some potential advertising taglines riffing on the name:

• Fans Go "Whee!" For Wii
• Nintendo Upgrades Wii-fi Connection
• Nintendo Weens Gamers off Traditional Controllers
• Nintendo Wiins!
• Nintendo Wiipes Up
• Nintendo Whiips The Competition
• Nintendo Wiis on Competition
• Nintendo Wii Gets More Wee (For the inevitable redesign)
• Competitors Cry Wii-wii-wii all the way home

but some of the best ones are from the comments on the blog post linked to above, such as:

• Wiitarded
• See! Wii really don’t care what the competitors think.
• Wii Will Rock You

But I think I can do better:

• (said in a Cartman voice) Aw, wiik.
• Wii will wobble but it don't fall down
• Wii shall overcome
• Wii are the champions, my friends....
• Wii, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union...

Yes, there are some who contend that the name's uniqueness is contributing to the hype. I also read that it's all a hoax so that they can have a Punk'd moment at E3. Maybe. If it turns out to be a master stroke of marketing, then I'll eat my words, but I highly doubt that it's true.