i I, therefore I M.

Yesterday, MIPA camper Laura Sliva, of Lakeview Battle Creek, became the winner of an iPod Nano, just for registering for MIPA! She was randomly selected from everyone who had registered as of Monday. Sweet!

I won an iPod once, from Pepsi. I was quite excited, showing everyone I met. My enthusiasm was not matched by most, and people became bored with my stories of how all-I-did-was-open-a-Diet-Dew-and-Wham!-there-it-was! As my excitement failed to wane, some clever alternative names for the device were suggested, like the:

iCare
iGiveacrap
iHatesweepstakeswinners

Which got me pondering the use of the small initial letter in branding. We've got iPods, iBooks, iPaqs, eMacs, the iRiver MP3 player, the BMW iDrive system; there's even a foot massager caled the iSqueez. Anyone ever get a five-day dose of Zithromax? It's called a Z-PAK. Not a small letter, but in the same vein. There are more, maybe you can post the ones you've seen.

I think "i" has had its run. Here's the first salvo in the fight for the use of small initial letter "u". It could stand for "unconventional" or "unmatched quality". It could be used in many products.

Vacuum cleaner: uSuck
Lunchmeat: uTurkey
Ragtime Piano: uBeeblake
Dr. Office: uB Illin'
Ventriloquism Aid: uBigDummy

et cetera. Discuss.