Wordlab

We talk a lot about language as it appears in advertising and marketing, and especially in the names that define brands, but the most crucial arena for finding the right words is in international diplomacy, where our very survival is at stake.

In the latest development in the tug-of-war over potential war with Iraq, the United States and France are wrestling over the language of the proposed United Nations resolution that would force Iraq to disarm, or else…. The sticking point comes down to two words: “material breach,” in this case of Iraq’s past U.N. obligations. The U.S. wants very badly to include those two words, “to show the Security Council’s resolve in the face of Iraq’s failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors.”

The French, however, were concerned that the mention of “material breach” would allow the United States to attack Iraq on its own. Diplomats said French and the U.S. diplomats were talking about ways to change the wording to make the text acceptable to both sides.

Not quite the home run that “It depends on what your definition of is is,” perhaps, but startling nonetheless, as yet another reminder of how history is often painstakingly built upon a foundation of words.

A couple years ago, Ricochet was a hot company that provided high-speed wireless Internet access that actually worked. So, of course, they went bankrupt. Bought-out by Denver-based Aerie Networks in mid-2001, the Ricochet service is hoping to bounce back with an all-new brand and extensive advertising, first in the metro Denver area, then gradually nationwide.

The original Ricochet service was used primarily by now-extinct Silicon Valley techiesaurs, but the new brand is aggressively targeting the average consumer. Perhaps the best of the new taglines: “Plug one end into your computer. There is no other end.”

A brand new China: China’s financial industry has a new mantra these days as its markets open up to the world: branding. This, according to a story in China Daily, is an industry that used to be tightly regulated, based on networking, unwilling to compete, and was in a country with no awareness of advertising or brand building. Now all of that is changing very quickly, and competition is building:

“Brand reputation is a company’s largest single intangible asset,” said Tian Rencan, chief executive officer (CEO) of Fortis Investment Management Asia Ltd….

“Buying a fund is actually buying a brand,” said Xu Xiaosong, Southern Fund’s chief economist and deputy managing director.

We’ve lost track: is China still considered a communist country?

On the heels of last month’s announcement by Toyota and Nissan that the two silverbacks of the Japanese auto industry will, for the first time ever, team up to produce hybrid gas-electric automotive engines, comes today’s shocker by Toyota that it plans to have only hybrid engines in ALL of its cars by 2012.

This news, coupled with the Toyota-Nissan alliance, is sure to send shock waves through the U.S. auto industry. The Detroit automakers have been downplaying hybrid engines and focusing their R&D efforts on fuel cell technology, which may take longer than ten years to move into widespread availability.

On the fuel cell front, GM’s prototype car using fuel cells and electronic “drive-by-wire” technology, Hy-wire, could use a new name. After all, this is a major new technology that could completely revolutionize the automotive world and eventually lead to a serious reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; shouldn’t the name of this breakthrough driving experience capitalize on the emotional implications of such a revolution?

Also, it seems risky to couple the innovative propulsion system of the Hy-wire with a new driving mechanism that would effectively force all drivers to abandon everything they know about how to drive and instead learn to drive electronically, giving the X-Box Generation an unfair advantage out on the freeway. This could be a situation developing where, while GM is designing a great lunar rover to be piloted by astronauts and fighter pilots, Toyota and Nissan are covering the earth with hybrid vehicles that the rest of us can drive.