Procter & Gamble Tries to Trademark LOL, WTF and More

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Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) announced that the company is trying to trademark a number of popular texting and online phrases used by millennials, such as LOL, WTF, FML and NBD.

Procter & GambleThe company is planning on advertising its soap and cleaning products with these internet acronyms in order to appeal more to the youth. The consumer giants will likely include the phrases in brands such as Crest toothpaste and Febreze with the hopes of winning big in college campuses.

Procter & Gamble applied for the trademark in April with the intent of using these words on liquid soap, dishwashing detergents, hard surface cleaners and air fresheners. It is unclear what the company plans on doing with these trademarks or how they will boost their sales.

The term LOL stands for “Laughing out loud,” while WTF is “What the f-uck?,” FML is “F-ck my life” and NBD stands for “No big deal.” It is possible that Procter & Gamble is seeking out these patents so it can have complete control over who uses those words in advertising.

New board member Nelson Peltz recently lashed out at the the company for having aging brands that it has failed to update as they no longer appeal to the youth. Peltz added that brands such as Gillette don’t hold a candle to more hip brands such as Dollar Shave Club.

PG stock surged 0.2% on Friday.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2018/08/procter-gamble-lol-wtf-pg-millennials/.

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