The impact of course titles on student enrollment
Thursday, November 17, 2016 - 07:41
in Mathematics & Economics
In October of 1955, Ford marketing executive Robert Young recruited modernist poet Marianne Moore to name the company's new car. Although the marketing department had already created a list of 300 candidates, Young confessed to Moore that they were "characterized by an embarrassing pedestrianism." Perhaps the poet could be of assistance. In a reply to Young, Moore proposed a series of questionable, albeit non-pedestrian, names. Notable suggestions included: Intelligent Bullet, Ford Fabergé, Mongoose Civique, Bullet Cloisoné, and Utopian Turtletop. The marketing team rejected them all, instead naming the car after Henry Ford's son, Edsel. The name "Edsel" has since become representative of failure.