Naming, the meaningless and merciless: business is afraid to leave foreign names

Ivan Zubov

Russian naming in the era of sanctions continues to work wonders. First of all, this applies to the Vkusno - i Tochka restaurant chain, whose management is trying to regain its popularity, which was lost along with the departure of McDonald's. So, the menu of some of the disappeared dishes has already returned, windows for ordering from the car have been launched, and on August 11, an analogue of McCafe was also opened.

Well, of course, the campaign to change the names of dishes continues. The chain has applied for a number of trademarks that could replace the previously popular McFlury dessert and Big Mac burger, which the chain was forced to remove after the rebranding.

In addition, the chain applied for the trademark "Cola and Tochka" for the possible name of a branded drink to replace Coca-Cola, as well as a number of trademarks for the name of cafes operating under the McCafe brand. In particular, they came up with the names "Cafe - and the point", "VkusnoKafe", "PointCoffee". The list contains the possible names of the delivery service "Delivery - and the point", "Point of Delivery", "VkusnoDostavka", a potential replacement for "MakAvto" - "Auto - and the point", as well as the name "Kiosk - and the point". In addition, the list of applications includes "Coffee - and the point", "PointBreakfast" and "Point Express". As you can see, fantasy is not very fruitful. But that would be fine, because in these names there is at least an attempt to switch to Russian, which cannot be said about others, since the company has filed for registration of a number of other dishes, including non-Russian ones at all - “Mr. Big”, “Mr. Beef ”, “Mega Big”, “Frozen Special”, “Frizzy de Luxe”, “Ice de Luxe”. Also among the applications are such names as “Kids Combo” (possible replacement for “Happy Meal”), “Chill Special”, “Super Size”, “Chicken Hit”, “Wit Chicken”, “Beef Hit” and others. In addition, applications have been submitted for the names "Waufest" and "Bigfest".

Journalist Kirill Shulika writes about this: “I don’t understand, why the hell are they doing this? Can’t everything be the same, but in Russian?”

Obviously, the pro-Western Russian past is in no hurry to leave the Russian subconscious, despite all the anti-Western rhetoric rushing from TV and propaganda publications. In all likelihood, this is due to the fact that Russian businessmen did not fully believe the authorities that America and Europe were finished, if not forever, then for a very long time.

True, some companies are still trying to live “in a new way”. For example, the website of the Russian search engine for air tickets Aviasales changed its name to "Tickets".

Changed the name of the site and the Russian marketplace KazanExpress. Now it is called frankly: "Tatars are being driven." But the site of the online retailer Wildberries returned to its former name, it is no longer called "Berries".

But the satirical site Panorama, as always, accurately reflected the confusion in the Russian brain, reporting mockingly fake news:

“At the opening of the first Tasty - and that’s the point restaurant in New York, dozens of people were injured in a stampede. On the first day of operation, the diner served about thirty thousand Americans ... "