Saturday, December 20, 2008

Go With the Off Brand


Did you ever wonder about the origin of the brand Scotch Tape? Well I did. I always assumed that it was in reference to the hardworking Scots, or an accolade to the strength and durability of my Scottish heritage. Sadly I was very wrong. Apparently it was nothing more than a racial slur that has stuck through the decades.

Here is how history writes it.

The brandname Scotch came about while Richard Drew was testing his first masking tape to determine how much adhesive he needed to add. The bodyshop painter became frustrated with the sample masking tape and exclaimed, "Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!" The name was soon applied to the entire line of 3M tapes. Read the full article here.

So there you have it. Not a monument to our Scottish strength, but an insult to our Scottish sense of frugality. I'm thinking of finding a new brand of tape, the off brands work just as well and are much more reasonable in price.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It doesn't bother me, since I'm Austrian with a little Irish blood - but for those of you with Maclennan blood - go for it.
Dad

Anonymous said...

That is so disturbing...I'm glad you did the research on it, Never again will i buy Scotch Tape.
-AGQ

Vince said...

Im w/ you steve... i dont really care. just dont tell lorissa i said that.

Rachel Lynn said...

my dad uses electrical tape to wrap our christmas gifts.

Thats the portuguese alternative.

hope this time was educational.

jasonquiz said...

Wow if only I could say what I really feel about those who bash the scotts!! Those $:@¥-$ /&;84@!!!

Really funny post Riss.

Anonymous said...

bahahahaha! That is funny. Did you ever research the origin of Paint Thinner? Let's just say it was orgianlly called "Ghost Tonic" and the guy who created it had Lost his mind.