The phrase "Let's Roll" has now been trademarked by quite a few companies.
April 10, 2002 1:53 PM Subscribe
The phrase "Let's Roll" has now been trademarked by quite a few companies. We touched on this once before in the State of the Union thread, but the current list of trademark's goes far beyond what was previously discused. You can now get all manner of brickabrack emblazoned with a "Let's Roll" logo. Is it patriotism, or profiterring?
I'm much more sick of the "Now more than ever..." b.s. than the "Let's Roll" b.s.
posted by karenh at 2:56 PM on April 10, 2002
posted by karenh at 2:56 PM on April 10, 2002
The difference is in what's trademarked. I mean, T-shirts are one thing, fine. But "let's roll" knives? Considering how the terrorists are said to have taken over the planes, you've got a lot of convincing to do to get me to beilieve that's in any way on the same level as a monument that honors the NYSE and Ellis Island.
posted by emptyage at 3:04 PM on April 10, 2002
posted by emptyage at 3:04 PM on April 10, 2002
next week i plan to introduce a line of "Let's Roll Boxcutters™"
posted by quonsar at 3:10 PM on April 10, 2002
posted by quonsar at 3:10 PM on April 10, 2002
Sounds like a good one for NORML to place on their advertisements.
If we don't Roll(TM), then the...
*runs*
posted by adampsyche at 3:14 PM on April 10, 2002
If we don't Roll(TM), then the...
*runs*
posted by adampsyche at 3:14 PM on April 10, 2002
Wasn't "Now More Than Ever" originally Nixon's '72 reelection campaign slogan?
posted by aaron at 4:10 PM on April 10, 2002
posted by aaron at 4:10 PM on April 10, 2002
Let's petit pain!
posted by ParisParamus at 7:34 PM on April 10, 2002
posted by ParisParamus at 7:34 PM on April 10, 2002
At the risk of Godwin -ing myself, did anyone ever trademark phrases like "Never again" or ...eww. Ick. That phrase seems to have many connotations, now. I assume the same will be said of "Let's Roll" before long. I mean prior to Nine Eleven it had one general conceptual meaning but many uses. I guess cultural experience can have a noticable affect on the evolution of language. Maybe a century or two from now "Letsroll" will be one word, and probably have different connotations from what it has today.
I feel I should be offended. In fact it appears this is a more than metaphorical foraging of the remains of Todd Beamer. The one thing that man indirectly gave to the world - a new connotation to an old phrase. Perhaps not much of a legacy. Oh sure, he was a devoted husband and father. He probably helped other individuals in ways that no history book will ever properly chronicle. History will remember him for those two words, and the new variant of meaning he's given them.
But they're just words. It's intriguing how silly and yet profound subtle changes to our language can happen. The American Dialect Society voted the various forms of "Nine Eleven" as The Word Of The Year, and the phrase "Let's Roll" the most inspirational. It is perhaps wrong of me to think of people trying to take advantage of such a terrible tragedy for personal financial gain, but as someone else said earlier in this thread, it's certainly not hypocisy. It is in essence uniquely American. A kind of backhanded tribute to those who lost their lives - that so many others find those two simple words so valuable now; an inspiration to the undying spirit of America.
Weird.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:44 PM on April 10, 2002
I feel I should be offended. In fact it appears this is a more than metaphorical foraging of the remains of Todd Beamer. The one thing that man indirectly gave to the world - a new connotation to an old phrase. Perhaps not much of a legacy. Oh sure, he was a devoted husband and father. He probably helped other individuals in ways that no history book will ever properly chronicle. History will remember him for those two words, and the new variant of meaning he's given them.
But they're just words. It's intriguing how silly and yet profound subtle changes to our language can happen. The American Dialect Society voted the various forms of "Nine Eleven" as The Word Of The Year, and the phrase "Let's Roll" the most inspirational. It is perhaps wrong of me to think of people trying to take advantage of such a terrible tragedy for personal financial gain, but as someone else said earlier in this thread, it's certainly not hypocisy. It is in essence uniquely American. A kind of backhanded tribute to those who lost their lives - that so many others find those two simple words so valuable now; an inspiration to the undying spirit of America.
Weird.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:44 PM on April 10, 2002
aaron: Yes.
I don't think it's precisely patriotism to sell a flag, but it may be to buy one yourself. By the same token, I don't think it's exactly wrong -- profiteering -- to sell an item that represents patriotism to the buyer. Is it irreligious to sell religious icons? Is it profiteering to put a price on a medicine that someone needs to survive?
Besides, there's always been something forced about the use of the phrase. It's not as evocative as it's supposed, and I bet most of these items end up remaindered in some way.
posted by dhartung at 7:45 PM on April 10, 2002
I don't think it's precisely patriotism to sell a flag, but it may be to buy one yourself. By the same token, I don't think it's exactly wrong -- profiteering -- to sell an item that represents patriotism to the buyer. Is it irreligious to sell religious icons? Is it profiteering to put a price on a medicine that someone needs to survive?
Besides, there's always been something forced about the use of the phrase. It's not as evocative as it's supposed, and I bet most of these items end up remaindered in some way.
posted by dhartung at 7:45 PM on April 10, 2002
Is it too late for me to trademark, "You roll, I'll sit here and watch your greed"?
posted by mdeatherage at 12:16 AM on April 11, 2002
posted by mdeatherage at 12:16 AM on April 11, 2002
> next week i plan to introduce a line of "Let's Roll Boxcutters™"
I'd buy that for a dollar!
And maybe a Let's Roll bowling game with tower-shaped pins.
Or, of course, rolling papers. "Why not smoke yourself a couple of towering infernos tonight?"
> Is it irreligious to sell religious icons? Is it profiteering to
> put a price on a medicine that someone needs to survive?
If they sell it like anything else -- "Big sale on lawn chairs, hot dogs, flags, fruit cocktail, AIDS cocktail, paper plates!" -- then fine, everyone knows they're just being Walmart, undercutting the competition, sprawling all over the landscape, simultaneously spoiling downtowns and green spaces to make a buck.
But if they act as if they're being great saints or patriots byselling providing something to the good people of the land, while they're really in it because they're raking in huge profits from those things, then they're at best being duplicitous to easily duped Walmartians.
If the noble-seeming woman working in a kitchen to feed the homeless talks about how we all have to pitch in and do our part, and then you find out she actually gets paid lots of money for dishing out soup and that she would do something else if it paid better, you reassess your opinion of her.
> The American Dialect Society voted ...
I like their newsletter (.pdf): NADS.
posted by pracowity at 12:38 AM on April 11, 2002
I'd buy that for a dollar!
And maybe a Let's Roll bowling game with tower-shaped pins.
Or, of course, rolling papers. "Why not smoke yourself a couple of towering infernos tonight?"
> Is it irreligious to sell religious icons? Is it profiteering to
> put a price on a medicine that someone needs to survive?
If they sell it like anything else -- "Big sale on lawn chairs, hot dogs, flags, fruit cocktail, AIDS cocktail, paper plates!" -- then fine, everyone knows they're just being Walmart, undercutting the competition, sprawling all over the landscape, simultaneously spoiling downtowns and green spaces to make a buck.
But if they act as if they're being great saints or patriots by
If the noble-seeming woman working in a kitchen to feed the homeless talks about how we all have to pitch in and do our part, and then you find out she actually gets paid lots of money for dishing out soup and that she would do something else if it paid better, you reassess your opinion of her.
> The American Dialect Society voted ...
I like their newsletter (.pdf): NADS.
posted by pracowity at 12:38 AM on April 11, 2002
"Is it patriotism, or profiterring?"
Why do you hate America so much?
posted by wfrgms at 6:11 AM on April 11, 2002
Why do you hate America so much?
posted by wfrgms at 6:11 AM on April 11, 2002
My view on patriosm is that, like religion, it loses something when it loses its treatment as something "special". With religio it's commercial secularization (WWJD everything, new age movements bastardizing and simplifying other culture's religions, etc). I'm not quite sure what to call it when it happens to patriotism, but I think we all know it when we see it: i.e., flags on every conceivable, sellable product in the first few months after September 11.
My latest example: My dad brought home a cheap, $.10 pen from a state grain dealers meeting. On the pen: "United we stand"
posted by nathan_teske at 1:00 PM on April 11, 2002
My latest example: My dad brought home a cheap, $.10 pen from a state grain dealers meeting. On the pen: "United we stand"
posted by nathan_teske at 1:00 PM on April 11, 2002
dhartung:
I don't think it's precisely patriotism to sell a flag, but it may be to buy one yourself.
Wrong. Commerce has nothing to do with patriotism.
Patriotism is about internal ideas and values, not about making a buck, sticking a flag decal on your vehicle or putting up a cheap plastic flag over your front door.
posted by mark13 at 8:54 AM on April 12, 2002
I don't think it's precisely patriotism to sell a flag, but it may be to buy one yourself.
Wrong. Commerce has nothing to do with patriotism.
Patriotism is about internal ideas and values, not about making a buck, sticking a flag decal on your vehicle or putting up a cheap plastic flag over your front door.
posted by mark13 at 8:54 AM on April 12, 2002
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The difference being?
The planned NYC memorial will honor "the values that the World Trade Center represented." (nyt link). The WTC represented capitalism. So do the Lets Roll t-shirts. I'm not making any sort of value judgment on the message, but I don't think there's any hypocrisy at work here.
posted by PrinceValium at 2:29 PM on April 10, 2002