PLASTIC FANTASTIC
Style over substance ad nauseum
— By Plasteurope.com staff —
It used to be that companies were named after what they made, for example, BASF stands for Baden Aniline and Soda Factory; or where they’re headquartered, such as Hoechst, based in the Frankfurt district. But in today’s globalised and polyglot world, we have to make do with fancy, artificial names that obscure rather than explain what the company behind them actually does.
It used to be that companies were named after what they made, for example, BASF stands for Baden Aniline and Soda Factory; or where they’re headquartered, such as Hoechst, based in the Frankfurt district. But in today’s globalised and polyglot world, we have to make do with fancy, artificial names that obscure rather than explain what the company behind them actually does.
 Company names are now but airy nothings – what matters is that the chimneys are smoking (Photo: Pexels/Orlando-s) |
Examples? Avient was formed from the merger of PolyOne and Clariant’s additives division – it sounds like an anti-allergy medication. Covestro isn’t self-explanatory, either. If we didn’t know any better, we would have guessed it was an accounting or investment software. Evonik evokes an electrical appliances manufacturer. But our fav has to be Syensqo – that’s an assignment for a cryptolinguist. It looks like it might be a typo, unpronounceable in any of the world’s languages at first glance…
22.08.2025 Plasteurope.com [258532-0]
Published on 22.08.2025