Flashback: Gulf Oil Spill and Rise of ‘the Narrative’ in Politics
The Importance of Tracking Evolving Narratives
.
Gulf Oil Spill Vs. Katrina
.
Obama vs. BP
The Lesson of the Gulf Oil Spill narrative is the importance of controlling the narrative, since whoever wins of the narrative, controls the story in terms of political capital — for good or ill.
Austin, TX, June 02, 2010 (Updated May 24, 2014) — In an exclusive analysis by The Global Language Monitor’s NarrativeTracker™, there are now several differing story lines emerging from the Gulf Oil Spill. The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and other social media outlets on the Internet, as well as the leading print and electronic databases.
Colleen Ross: How Obama Lost Control of the Oil-Spill Narrative (CBC)
The Narratives emerging from this on-going (and slow-moving) disaster include: Obama was Slow to Respond – 95% of the social media conversations characterize the President Obama as ‘slow to respond’. Obama vs. BP: who’s in charge? — 52% see BP in charge of the spill. This may or may not be a political liability. Democrats need the blame assigned to BP; at the same time, Obama needs to be seen as in overall control of the disaster Worst environmental disaster ever – 42% see the current spill the worst environmental disaster ever. Federal Response — 57% see the Federal response using ‘poor’ or related keywords. Not a good month for the Feds; come to think of it, not a good year for the Feds. Katrina vs. Exxon Valdez – 61% make the comparison to the Exxon Valdez; about 39% compare the ongoing spill to the inundation of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Biblical Prophecies Abound Once More — About 61% of all references involve the Bible. (Even Ted Turner has a theory how the oil spill might be a warning from God.) These are markedly different in tone than those used with Katrina where the references focused on apocalyptic imagery, End-of-the-World scenarios and doom. The Obama Style of Leadership – This is a close one 52% see Obama as ‘hand’s on’ leadership, 48% see ‘hand’s off’. Again, this is either positive or negative depending on your political bias.
Clarence Page: How stories, true or not, drive politics
Ronald Reagan was seen as a ‘hand’s off’ president and that was considered good. Jimmy Carter was a ‘hand’s on’ type president and that was considered bad. “The development of the Gulf Oil Spill narrative is important to track since he who wins control of the narrative, controls the story in terms of political capital – for good or ill,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of GLM. “With the mid-term elections just five months away, and the prospect of the Gulf Oil Spill continuing unabated for months, control of the narrative is more important than ever.” The rise of the narrative can render positions on the issues almost meaningless, since positions now matter less than how they fit into a particular narrative.
The NarrativeTracker is more effective in capturing the true opinion of the public because it tracks unfiltered keywords in Social Media and other sources, rather than how that opinion is interpreted by the news media or by pollsters. The term ‘narrative’ in this sense is now appearing thousands of times in the global media on the Internet and blogosphere as well as throughout the world of social media, meaning the main streams of public opinion running in the media that needs to be fed, encouraged, diverted or influenced by any means possible. GLM recently announced The Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ (NTI™), in partnership with OpenConnect Systems of Dallas. The Healthcare NTI is the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving healthcare reform, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. The NarrativeTracker is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ (PQI™).
The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity. About the Global Language Monitor Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.
#####################################################
#####################################################
Mandela Tops All Media Funerals, except John Paul II’s, Since 1997
No. 3 Ronald Reagan, No. 4 Princess Diana, No. 5 Michael Jackson, No. 6 Mother Teresa
Lady Thatcher Does Not Make the Cut
Ranked by TrendTopper Internet MediaBuzz
Austin, TX January, 2014 – In an exclusive analysis performed by the Global Language Monitor, the death of Nelson Mandela has topped those of all global influencers since 1997 with the exception of Pope John II, back in 2005.
“The emergence of Nelson Mandela into the No. 2 position is a testimony to the universal appeal of the man and his ideals,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and the Chief Word Analyst of GLM, “especially in a time when superficialities such as ‘twerking’ and the taking of so-called ‘selfies,’ seem to monopolize the airways in all their many forms.”
The re-emergence of John Paul II into the top spot also is seen by some as a worthy tribute to a man who helped end Communism’s grip over Eastern Europe and beyond. The legacy of Ronald Reagan presidency is viewed as transformational by both US political parties which can account for his continued high regard.
.
Nelson Mandela took the No. 2 spot, ahead of Ronald Reagan (2004), Princess Diana (1997), the mother of the future line of British Monarchy, including Prince William, his wife Kate and their new son, George, Michael Jackson (2009) the entertainment icon, Mother Teresa (1997).
Lady Thatcher, the long-serving British Prime Minister who died last April just missed the survey cutoff.Read more
Obama and the null set narrative
Reprinted from The Hill, May 31, 2009
Obama and the null set narrative
We have been analyzing the narrative of Barack Obama for some years now. In fact, we’ve tracked three differing narratives in the course of his campaign and the first term of his presidency. We’ve tracked the president’s highs (the “Yes we can!” Grant Park Speech, and others of soaring rhetoric), and his lows (the much more pedestrian Gulf Oil Spill effort).
We’ve been praised for our astute analysis, and condemned for announcing his premature political death. At the time, the Global Language Monitor’s analysis of the BP Oil Spill speech was actually pulled off CNN and replaced by a far milder critique. In retrospect, that speech was a harbinger of what was to come — Barack Obama bereft of Hope and Change.
Not that we didn’t have hints about of what was about to transpire. Consider the disposition of these “hope-and-change type” promises: (1) the immediate shutdown of Guantanamo, (2) the end of the K Street revolving door and (3) holding the bankers accountable for their part in the financial meltdown. How exactly do you make sense of these countervailing (or even contradictory) positions?
Obama and the null set narrative.
Now consider the president’s recent speech on U.S. defense policy: after ramping up the use of drones against “enemy combatants,” with hundreds of civilians deaths by the administration’s own estimate, he stands firmly against gratuitous drone strikes. After keeping Gitmo open for going on five years now, he will now do everything in his power to close it. How to make sense of these seemingly oppositional positions?
The null set narrative.
In the run-up to the 2010 midterms, we began to formally track the president’s narrative. We were curious to better understand how the word ‘narrative’ rose to be the No. 1 political buzzword at that time and what it meant to this presidency. Other terms frequently used to describe Obama at the time, included: detached, aloof, hands-off or professorial. Some took these words to be demeaning and/or insulting.
Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune wrote, “The danger comes when politicians and their operatives essentially use ‘narrative’ … the version of the truth that they want us to believe even when they don’t believe it.”
Since his reelection last November, we have remained silent on the subject — awaiting the second term narrative to emerge. With the recent series of crises, scandals and/or events, we now are, indeed, witnessing this new narrative: the null set narrative.
Consider, if you will, the current plight of one Jay Carney.
It is always interesting how one’s attributes can be used to praise or condemn depending on the narrative in which they are described.
However, this is a narrative that can fit around any news, story or scandal; more to the point, it is completely irrelevant to the words ensconced within it. Any words, anytime, anywhere. This is the narrative of choice for the administration at this point in time.
And now detached, aloof, and hands-off are the favored phrases in this administration’s null set narrative.
#####################################################
#####################################################
2013 Major Golf Championships Ranked by Internet Media Buzz
British Open No. 1 by the wide margin, Master’s No. 2
In Analysis ‘The Players’ Ranks higher than the PGA
Biggest Problem: Nicklaus adds three Majors (to 21), Woods adds only one (to 15).
Austin, Texas. May 11, 2013. (Updated) Open Championship has been declared the Top Golf Major by Internet Media Buzz, according to an analysis using Global Language Monitor’s Sports Brand Affiliation Index (S-BAI).
“After forty years, the Players Championship has earned its place among the Major Golf Championships,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. “Forty years is certainly an excellent vantage point to judge its worthiness. And the data has spoken.”Payack added, “Since 1860 The Open is the championship against which all future Majors would be judged. Now over one hundred and fifty-years later, we see that it towers above all others in the world of golf.”
#####################################################
#####################################################
Obama: du candidat super star au président mal aimé
.
.
.
La couverture de l’élection de Barack Obama a été sans commune mesure avec les élections présidentielles de 2000 et 2004. Jacques Portes explique pourquoi le président des Etats-Unis n’a pas réussi à transformer ce succès planétaire en atout au cours de son mandat. Extraits de “Obama, vers un deuxième mandat ?” (1/2).
Not the Thrilla in Manila, but Certainly Nasty in Nassau
Austin, TEXAS. October 17, 2012. The President Obama of yore (2008, that is) showed up at the debate last night and so was hailed the victor. In fact, the numbers show that it was not that Romney faltered. He did not. Rather it was the President who recovered from his first debate ‘debacle’ (as viewed by his strongest supporters).
The numbers reveal the story. First, keep this number in mind: 7.4. This is the grade level of Obama’s most widely hailed speech, the “Yes, We Can!” Grant Park victory speech. ‘Yes, We Can!” is widely perceived as a classic to be enshrined in the American Oratory Hall of Fame along side Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream,” Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,’ and Ronald Reagan’s “City on a Hill” speeches.
In the first Presidential debate, Obama’s grade level came in at 9.2. For a debate, with all its give-and-take, interruptions, pauses and the like, that was a rather high number. A Town Hall meeting is definitely not the place for the grandiloquent turn of phrase, especially when you are trying to woo the undecided citizens of the land with plain speakin’ — no matter how uncomfortable that might be.
We all told in sixth grade that a newspaper should be written at the sixth-grade level, which from the sixth-grade perspective can be quite a challenge. What this really translates to is short sentences, concise paragraphs, fewer polysyllabic words, and all written in active voice.
As an example, Joe Biden spoke at a sixth grade level (6.1) in the vice presidential debate and there were few who claimed the inability to understand Ol’ Joe. (Unfortunately, these tests do not evaluate facial expressions.) In last night’s debate , Obama scored 7.2 in the grade-level score, about 28% lower (and in this case better) than his first debate — and nearly identical to his Grant Park discourse.
Both Romney and Obama cut their used of passive voice nearly in half from 6% to 4% and 3%, respectively. Active voice, where the subject is the doer of the action, is always preferred over passive voice in political discourse since it can be used to avoid responsibility. (‘Taxes were raised’ rather than ‘I raise raised the taxes.)
Finally, Obama’s reading ease score improved over 8% from 63.1 to 70.1; Romney’s remained a bit higher at 71.0.
In champion fights, the unwritten rule is that you never take the current champ’s crown away on — points unless the victory is overwhelming. Last night the President showed up to fight, and thus is awarded the victory on points. So the Presidential Debate series now stands even at 0ne all, with the rubber (and deciding) match to take place next week.
The Final Narrative of Barack Obama
Austin, Texas. October 9, 2012 — The controversy swirling around Obama’s debate performance completely misses the point. For better or worse, this is it. Stripped of all pretension. Devoid of the catch phrases and the swoons. Minus the Hollywood glam. This is he. Barack Obama. The man, unadorned. No longer do we see Obama through a glass dimly. Now we see him for who he is. This is neither to embellish nor dis-embellish the man. This is to see things for what they are and not what they ought — or ought not — to be.
At the Global Language Monitor we understand that life is not an exit poll; we cannot shape the reality of how we just voted. It is a zero-sum thing, a binary action, a one or a zero, a yes or a no. In the same manner we have tracked the narrative of Barack Obama the preceding five years, stripped of all adornment, searching for the reality that was all too frequently, standing right before us, actually in our midst, if only we had the will to open our eyes to see.
Of course we have unabashedly published our findings along the way but at that time our findings seemed a bit out-of-step, as indeed they were. Out-of-step with the perceived reality, but in step with reality as it was. Unlike most of life, a new president is graced with a honeymoon period, when missteps are overlooked, forgotten, or forgiven. This is not the ‘suspension of disbelief’ that allows us to enjoy a fantastical story in the cinema but rather a ‘suspension of self-interest,’ where we put aside our partisan differences and wait. We wait for the cues and signals, both small and large, that will reveal the intentions, proclivities, and (dare I say it?) the character of the incumbent.
For some presidents this grace period is over nearly before it starts (Gerald Ford and George W. Bush come to mind). For others, it lasts a bit longer (George H.W. Bush), and for others longer still (Ronald Reagan). In the case of Barack Obama, the situation was markedly different. Being a black man, most Americans wanted him to succeed precisely because he was a black man. As a relative outsider, he was a welcome break from the recent past (and impending future) — Bush 41, Clinton 42, Bush 43, Clinton 44?
Being a newcomer, he was the classic tabula rasa, a blank slate upon which we could pour upon all our hopes and dreams. And change? Who on this planet did not want change from the preceding eight years: a divisive and disputed election, global terrorism and 9/11, two wars in the Middle East, a devastating tsunami, the inundation of one of America’s great cities, and to top it off, the global financial meltdown. All this being so, Barack Obama began his presidency with an extraordinarily large reservoir of good will. Let’s call this reservoir the Hope and Change Quotient (HCQ).
During Obama’s first days in office, the nation was engulfed in ‘anger and rage’? GLM analyzed the situation back in February 2009 and found that what was being reported as ‘anger’ was actually ‘frustration,’ while what was being reported as ‘rage’ was actually ‘despair’, a sense of foreboding or impending doom. GLM followed this rather odd undercurrent during the earliest, most hopeful, days of the Obama administration. The results were striking, especially, in contrast to the immense outpouring of global goodwill in response to the inauguration of Barack Obama, since the survey included the ten days immediately following Obama’s swearing in. Some of the keywords showing heightened awareness were Abandoned, Despair, Desperation, and Fear — all appearing in the media with double digit increases over the pre-election period. This was perhaps an abberation we thought, but as we moved forward, the pattern continued unabated.
We saw a turning point with the Gulf Oil Spill speech. This was the opportunity to show the world how a US President would properly respond to a major crisis threatening the Gulf Coast, the ecosystem, and the forces of nature and the evil of Man (an arrogant CEO from Central casting, BP, Halliburton, and a 24×7 ‘Spill Cam’ spewing forth colorful filth, worthy of a Dreamworks 3-D treatment. And what did we get? We got what we had been measuring for the preceding two years: Obama 2.0, with an academic-sounding speech detailing a broad plan for an alternative-energy future and few specifics, and little of the hell-and-brimstone his followers had hope for.
By now it was becoming apparent for all to see. This was a changed and changing man, at least how he revealed himself publicly through speech. By time the 2010 Mid-Terms delivered their ‘shellacking’ the transformation was nearly complete. With a few noteworthy exceptions, such as his Tuscon eulogy,which ranked among his best, the President has appeared less-and-less engaged, more-and-more distant.
In July we noted that the top political buzzwords were telling a far different story than either campaign was presenting to the American people. Our analysis found that Bush was clearly assigned responsibility for the so-called Great Recession, while Obama was responsibility for the economy’s current condition, just as concern over Bain Capital and the ‘war against women’ were of less and little concern respectively. In other words, the American people saw the issues as if the virulent political ads of both parties did not exist. In contrast ‘Still believe the American Dream’ was No. 5 and ‘Disappointment in Obama Administration’ was No. 6.
At the same time, the Hope and Change Quotient has nearly been depleted, this being the normal course near the end of every president’s first term in recent memory. The President has finally been vetted. We now know the man, his strengths, weaknesses, and his proclivities. This is not to say that he will not win in his bid for re-election. But this is to say, that for better or worse, this is it.
This is the final narrative of Barack Obama.
***
GLM used NarrativeTracker Technology in this study. NarrativeTracker is based on the global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what any audience is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, the top global print and electronic media, as well as new media sources as they emerge.
Paul JJ Payack is the president and Chief Word Analysts of Austin-based Global Language Monitor.
Protected: Final Olympic Brand Affiliation Rankings of the London Games Announced
Olympic (Ambush) Competition Officially Under Way
Ambushers Leading Sponsors 33-17
.
Billions of Dollars in Brand Equity at Stake
AUSTIN, Texas. July 18, 2012 — Of the Top Fifty Brands affiliated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games only seventeen are official sponsors. This according to the latest Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) analysis by the Global Language Monitor, the Internet media trend tracking company. The longitudinal study began in July 2011 and tracks the top three tiers of official Olympic sponsorship, as designated by the LOGOC and the IOC.
.
.
.
“Fortunately in the Olympics there is no ‘mercy rule,’ where a winner is declared in a contest to reach twenty-one, when one side scores the first 11 points,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. Of the top official and ‘non-affiliated marketers’ in the current study, the first twelve fall into the non-affiliated category.”
.
Some seventy-five brands are studied including the twenty-five premier official sponsors divided into three tiers: The TOP partners, which pay approximately one hundred million pounds for the privilege, the Official Olympic Partners, and the Official Olympic Sponsors. Together these sponsors pay an estimated 30% of the cost of staging the games.
There are a number of other levels and forms of sponsorship including national sponsorships such as the USOC. The real cost of being a TOP partner ranges from a $500 billion to over a trillion dollar investment to companies that sign on for sponsorships spanning several Olympiads.
For these rankings GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship, all perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
Ambushing by ‘Non-affiliated Marketers’ is more than Michael Phelps pitching sandwiches; it is a years-long effort to create a pseudo-sponsorship to leverage the good-well generated by having the Olympics with one’s brand.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis,ranged from a high of 797.90 (Royal Philips} to a low of 1.50 for VisaCard. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with the event.
.
The Top Twelve (all Ambushers), along with their tiers, are Listed below:
| 1 | Royal Philips | TOP-A |
| 2 | CVC Capital | OOP-A |
| 3 | ExxonMobil | OOP-A |
| 4 | Manpower | OOS-A |
| 5 | Schroders | OOP-A |
| 6 | IBM Global | TOP-A |
| 7 | E ON Energy | OOP-A |
| 8 | KPMG | OOS-A |
| 9 | Deutsche Telekom | OOP-A |
| 10 | BASF | TOP-A |
| 11 | EI DuPont | TOP-A |
| 12 | Cable & Wireless | OOP-A |
.
As you can see for the above rankings, Business-to-Business brands are being subjected to the sames ambush marketing forces as B2C marketers. ‘
Royal Philips is crushing GE by over 20:1 margin; ExxonMobil bests BP by a similar margin; and BASF and DuPont are both striding past Dow.
The Top Ten Official Sponsors ranked from No. 13 to No. 39 overall. They are listed below, along with their tiers.
,
| 1 | BT Group | OOP |
| 2 | Cadbury | OOS |
| 3 | BMW | OOP |
| 4 | Adidas | OOP |
| 5 | Panasonic | TOP |
| 6 | McDonald;s | TOP |
| 7 | Coca-Cola | TOP |
| 8 | UPS | OOS |
| 9 | P&G | TOP |
| 10 | EDF energy | OOP |
| 11 | Arcelor Mittal | OOS |
| 12 | Samsung | TOP |
.
Though listed at the top official sponsor, the BT group actually ranks behind both Deutsche Telekom and Cable&Wireless.
Cadbury, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are doing quite well for their investments in spite of the efforts to derail their sponsorships on the grounds of their contributing to a so-called ‘obesogenic’ environment. Adidas is currently doubling Nike’s number. P&G continues to excel with their ‘Moms’ campaign. Arcelor Mittal is a surprise standout for a company previously little known to the public.
GLM has been measuring the effects of Ambush marketing on the Olympic Movement for the last three Olympiads, in the process accumulating perhaps the most extensive database of its kind. For London 2012, GLM began tracking the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games. For more information, call +1.512.801.6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or click on www.LanguageMonitor.com
Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate
Olympic Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate London 2012
Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops Coke, Adidas, and BA
Austin, Texas. Weekend May 4-6, 2012. Ambush Marketers continue to dominate the run-up to the London Summer Games. In fact ‘non-affiliated marketers’ took 27 of the top 50 spots measuring effective brand activation by the Global Language Monitor’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI).
This despite the recent tightening of the rules by the IOC, The GLM BAI rankings are not simply a matter of pride or bragging rights but rather a battle for brand equity and the consumer’s mind and the billions of dollars committed to the IOC, which are primarily used to fund the Games.
.
“The Olympic movement it is not immune to the historic shifts in communications affecting all institutions worldwide,” said Paul JJ Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor. “The seemingly all-pervasive media ensure that the flow of information can be stopped neither by national boundaries nor institutional gatekeepers. There is no reason to think that marketing activities are immune from such forces. In fact, marketing has been one of the foremost purveyors of new media technology.”
For these rankings GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.
GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on May 1, 2012.
With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
To schedule a confidential consultation, call +1.512.801.6823.
For these rankings, encompassing the first quarter of 2012, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The top findings include:
- McDonald’s is in a tough fight, ranking behind Subway and Pizza Hut, but beating KFC.
- Ambusher Nike leads Partner Adidas by a wide margin.
- British Airways trails ambushers Lufthansa, United and Air France in the rankings.
- Royal Philip outpaced ever-strong GE.
- P&G continues to crush ambush competitors as it did in Vancouver.
- Ambusher Ericsson Over Supporter Cisco by a 3:1 margin.
The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games
One interesting side note is that even the Summer Games are encountering the Duchess Effect. The GLM BAI analysis showed that when linked with London 2012, Kate Middleton had a closer brand affiliation than a number of top sponsors including Coke, Adidas, BA and Panasonic, among others.
This again demonstrates the power of the ‘Kate Middleton Brand’. A Tier 1 Olympic sponsor pays about $160 million for the privilege, plus the attendant advertising fees promoting the relationship that can cost upwards of $500 million over the four-year arrangement. This would suggest that the Kate Middleton Brand could be valued at nearly a billion dollars or more, just in relationship to Summer Games.
..
The Top Ten Official Olympic Sponsors by BAI are listed below.
| 1 | Arcelor Mittal | Supporter |
| 2 | EDF energy | Partner |
| 3 | BT Group | Partner |
| 4 | Thomas Cook | Supporter |
| 5 | UPS | Supporter |
| 6 | Lloyds TSB | Partner |
| 7 | Cadbury | Supporter |
| 8 | BP | Partner |
| 9 | P&G | IOC |
| 10 | ATOS | IOC |
..
The Top Ten non-Olympic Affiliated Marketers by BAI are listed below.
| 1 | Centrica | AMB OP |
| 2 | Eon Energy UK | AMB OP |
| 3 | Barclaycard | AMB IOC |
| 4 | Schroders | AMB OP |
| 5 | Royal Philips | AMB IOC |
| 6 | EI DuPont | AMB IOC |
| 7 | Kraft | AMB SUP |
| 8 | Ericsson Comm | AMB SUP |
| 9 | Subway | AMB IOC |
| 10 | Lufthansa | AMB OP |
.
The Top Twenty Combined Olympic Sponsors and Non-Affiliated Marketers Ranked by BAI.
| 1 | Arcelor Mittal | Supporter |
| 2 | EDF energy | Partner |
| 3 | BT Group | Partner |
| 4 | Centrica | AMB OP |
| 5 | Eon Energy UK | AMB OP |
| 6 | Thomas Cook | Supporter |
| 7 | Barclaycard | AMB IOC |
| 8 | UPS | Supporter |
| 9 | Schroders | AMB OP |
| 10 | Lloyds TSB | Partner |
| 11 | Cadbury | Supporter |
| 12 | BP | Partner |
| 13 | Royal Philips | AMB IOC |
| 14 | P&G | IOC |
| 15 | ATOS | IOC |
| 16 | EI DuPont | AMB IOC |
| 17 | Kraft | AMB SUP |
| 18 | Ericsson Comm | AMB SUP |
| 19 | Subway | AMB IOC |
| 20 | Lufthansa | AMB OP |
.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.
GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on March 31, 2012.
With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com
About Global Language Monitor: ”We Tell You What the Web is Thinking”
Founded in Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas-based GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language.
GLM employs proprietary ‘algorithmic methodologies’ such as the NarrativeTracker for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time.
NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 175,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com
*******
Number of Words in the English Language
1,035,877.3
Number of Words in the English Language, January 1, 2016 estimate
.
Shakespeare Created 1700 Words in His Lifetime
The number of words in the English language is : 1,035,877.3 This is the estimate by the Global Language Monitor for January 1, 2016. The English Language passed the Million Word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. (GMT).
Currently there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day. For more information, go here.
How to Do Everything (NPR) How Long to Type All the Words
The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love) is Top Word, Pope Francis topped by Ebola as Top Name, “Hands Up, No Shoot” is Top Phrase
Pope Francis Topped by Ebola for Top Name of 2014 (see below)
“Hands Up, No Shoot” is the Top Phrase of the Year of 2014 (see below)
Documenting the year 2014 through English-language word usage
Global Language Monitor’s 15th Annual Survey of Global English
AUSTIN, Texas, December 2014 — The Emoji ideograph for Heart (and Love) is the Top Word for 2014 according to the 15th Annual survey of the English language by the the Global Language Monitor. The Heart and Love emoji, emoticon, and variations thereof appear billions of times a day around the world — across languages and cultures. This is the first time an ideograph has captured Word of the Year honors.
The GLM Word, Phrase, and Names of the Year lists are intended to provide a history of each year since 2000 through English-language word usage.
” Each emoji represents an emotion, expression, or state of mind, or a person, place or thing, so much so, that we see the birth of the AlphaBorg or AlphaBit.” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor.
Click here for an Emoji Test Yourself
“The English Language is now undergoing a remarkable transformation unlike any in its 1400 year history — its system of writing, the Alphabet, is gaining characters at amazing rate. These character are ideographs or pictographs that are called emoji and emoticons. There are about a thousand emoji characters now officially recognized by Unicode Consortium, the official keepers of coding that forms the basis of the Internet. They regularly review new suggestions with the next 37 or so being finalized for June 2015. Then the new emoji can be embedded in any number of devices for any number of languages.
“The AlphaBIT now includes letters, numbers, the diacritical marks that compose emoticons, as well as clever electronic solutions that provide real-time access to more than hundreds of emoji.”
GLM’s top words, phrases and names this year represent some five continents, which continues to confirm the ever-expanding nature of the English language.
Example of Emoji Keyboard
The figure below shows an Emoji keyboard for Apple. When you select the Emoji keyboard, you will see a new key on the bottom row, which looks like an stylized globe.
You click this key to access a number of emoji ideographic menus for differing classes of emoji. In this way the key doesn’t present a single letter, number, or diacritical mark but rather access to hundreds or thousands of emoji.
The following figures show the Top 7 Emojis on a specialized Twitter feed for 24 hours back in June 2014. Fourteen of the Top 100 were heart-based.
At last count there are now some 722 characters, with another 250 being made available during the next year, and 37 more due for approval in June 2015.
The Top Words of 2014 follow.
Rank / Word / Comments
- The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love) — The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love) is the Top Word of 2014. Each emoji represents an emotion, expression, or state of mind, or a person, place or thing.
- Hashtag — The re-invented pound-sign becomes evermore powerful.
- Vape — Smoking an electronic or e-cigarette, shorthand for vaporize, or vaping. Vapers are banned from indoor vaping in New York and other locales.
- Blood Moon — Four total eclipses of the moon in eighteen-month span. Some Christians see it as the presaging a “lunar apocalypse”.
- Nano — From Greek for dwarf, small; now 1 billionth of a meter, and any number of words surrounding nano technology.
- Photo Bomb — Breaking into a ‘pre-arranged” photograph without authorization resulting in often humorous outcomes.
- Caliphate — Literally, a land ruled by an Islamic Caliph typically governed under Sharia Law.
- (White) privilege — The alleged advantages of having lighter colored skin in a diverse society.
- Bae — Term of endearment for one’s object of desire.
- “Bash” Tag — Using a hashtag to undermine your frenemies.
- Transparency — That state of government openness that is apparently unachievable in the Western World.
- Sustainable — The Jimmy Carter of words; keeps getting stronger since it was WOTY in 2006.
- Clickbait — A link you just have to click on, though its more of a paid-for bait-and-switch.
- Quindecennial — Fifteen year anniversary; 2014 is the quindecinnal of the 21st century.
- Comet — Comet 67p has a visitor from the Rosetta Spacecraft.
OK is most understood word in the world, again. See more.
.
The Top Phrases of 2014
Rank / Phrase / Comment
- Hands Up, Don’t Shoot — Demonstrators’ continued chant after shooting of unarmed suspect in Ferguson, Missouri.
- Cosmic Inflation — The explosive growth of the Universe from virtually nothing. OK, there was something nowadays called the Singularity, sized about a billionth of a billionth of an inch. More evidence emerges that the Big Bang is settled science.
- Global Warming — The past is prologue here. 15,000 years ago New York City was buried under 5,000 meters of ice.
- Climate Change – Add ‘anthropogenic’ warming to this fact: the existence of the Bering Land Bridge 20,000 years ago suggests that the Oceans were some 100 meters lower than today. (That’s about a football field.)
- War on Women — In the Islamic state, women and young girls (10 and older) are stolen and then sold into sexual slavery or forced into involuntary marriages. And this after watching the beheading of their husbands, sons and brothers.
- All Time High — Many see this all-too-prevalent description of many world markets as more of a warning that a cause for celebration.
- Rogue nukes — Sources state that Iran can now assemble a bomb in two weeks. This is going from hypothetical to reality. (If true, International Inspection Effort: Fail.)
- Near-Earth Asteroid — Admittedly more of a space rock than an asteroid but it did create significant property damage as well as injuries before crashing into a Russian lake.
- Big Data — No 1 on the current High Tech Buzzword list, ushering in a global transformation in how data is processed, analyzed, and transformed into solutions.
- Polar Vector — An unusually long-lived Polar Outbreak plunging deep in the Southern territories.
.
The Top Names of 2014
Rank /Name / Comments
- Ebola — The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a highly contagious, often fatal, hemorrhagic disease. The current outbreak started in West Africa earlier this year and has claimed some 5,000 lives as of this writing.
- Pope Francis — The most highly cited name, again. The former Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, born December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires.
- World War One — A conflict from the early 20th century that many historians are beginning to understand as incomplete.
- Médecins Sans Frontières — Doctors Without Borders, is a Nobel Peace Prize winning NGO founded in 1971. Heroically, involved in current Ebola epidemic.
- MH370 — Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared on Saturday, 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 passengers and crew.
- FIFA World Cup — Better known simply as the World Cup, in 2014 won by Germany over Argentina (and heavily favored Brasil).
- Ice Bucket Challenge — A popular charity-based fund-raising activity to generate funds for ALS. The stunt involves pouring buckets of water and ice over the heads of the participants.
- Crimea — Reminder to Mr. Putin and the history-conscious (and poetically inclined): The Charge of the Light Brigadedid not end well.
- The Mid-terms — The US national election held during non-Presidential election years, hence the name, Mid-term.
- NSA — The National Security Agency of the US collects intelligence through clandestine means of both foreign and (to the surprise of many) domestic sources.
- Prince George of Cambridge. 5a. HRH Georgie — Nickname of Prince George of Cambridge, son of ‘Wills and Kate.” Watch this space as a ‘sister?’ enters the family.
- Malala Yousafzai — Two years ago named co-name of the Year by GLM, this year the co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.The Pakistani girl shot by terrorists for promoting the right to education for girls.
- Xi Jinping — “Steady as she goes,” as his term proceeds as China’s paramount leader.
- President Obama – ‘Hope and Change’ retreats even further into history as Obama’s second term troubles mount.
- Sochi Olympics — The XXII Olympic Winter Games that took place 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia.
Methodology: GLM’s Word of the Year rankings are based upon actual word usage throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion people. To qualify for these lists, the words, names, and phrases must meet three criteria: 1) found globally, 2) have a minimum of 25,000 citations, and 3) have the requisite ‘depth’ and ‘breadth’ of usage. Depth is here defined as appearing in various forms of media; breadth that they must appear world-over, not limited to a particular professional or social group or geography. The goal is to find the word usage that will endure the test of time.
GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 275,000 print and electronic global media (not limited to the English-language-based media), as well as new social media sources as they emerge.
The Top Words, Phrases, and Names since the Turn of the Century
2013:
Top Words: No. 1 ‘404’, No.2 Fail, No.3 Hashtag
Top Phrases: No. 1 Toxic Politics, No. 2 Federal Shutdown, No.3 Global Warming/Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1. Pope Francis, No. 2 ObamaCare, No.3 NSA
2012:
Top Words: No. 1 ApocalypseArmageddon, No.2 Deficit, No. 3 Olympiad
Top Phrases: No. 1 Gangnam Style, No. 2 Climate Change/Global Warming, No. 3 Fiscal Cliff
Top Names: No. 1 Newtown and Malala Yousafzai, No. 3 Xi Jinping
2011:
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No.2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Arab Spring, No. 2 Royal Wedding, No.3 Anger and Rage
Top Names: No. 1 Steve Jobs, No. 2 Osama bin-laden and Seal Team Six, No.3 Fukushima
2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No.2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama
2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama
2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 “Yes, We Can!”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps
2007:
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore
2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur
2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God
2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove
2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya
2002:
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)
2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros
2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)
About the Global Language Monitor
Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture. GLM analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 250,000 print and electronic news media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) as they emerge. The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.
In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known. GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities.
For more information, call 1.512.801.6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.
30 – 30 – 30
<!– Start of StatCounter Code for Default Guide –>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var sc_project=1434069;
var sc_invisible=0;
var sc_security=”3c42bc4e”;
var sc_https=1;
var scJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ?
“https://secure.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(“<sc”+”ript type=’text/javascript’ src=’” + scJsHost+
“statcounter.com/counter/counter.js‘></”+”script>”);
</script>
<noscript><div class=”statcounter”><a title=”click tracking”
href=”http://statcounter.com/” target=”_blank”><img class=”statcounter”
src=”http://c.statcounter.com/1434069/0/3c42bc4e/0/” alt=”click
tracking”></a></div></noscript>
<!– End of StatCounter Code for Default Guide –>
Words of the Year 2012
Apocalypse is the Top Word
Gangnam Style is the Top Phrase
Newtown AND Malala Yousafzai are the Top Names of the Year
Global Language Monitor’s 13th Annual Survey of Global English
Number of Words in the English Language: 1,019,729.6 (January 1, 2013 estimate)
AUSTIN, Texas December 27, 2012 — The Global Language Monitor has announced that ‘Apocalypse’ is the Top Word, ‘Gangnam Style’ is the Top Phrase and Newtown AND Malala Yousafzai are the Top Names of 2012 in its 13th annual global survey of the English language.
Apocalypse was followed by deficit, Olympiad, Bak’tun, and meme. Rounding out the top ten were MOOC, the Cloud, Omnishambles, Frankenstorm, and obesogenic.
“Apocalypse (Armageddon, and similar terms) reflects a growing fascination with various ‘end-of-the-world’ scenarios, or at least the end of life as we know it. This year the Mayan Apocalypse was well noted, but some eight of the top words and phrases were directly related to a sense of impending doom.” said Paul JJ Payack, President of the Global Language Monitor.
“These included: Apocalypse, Bak’tun, Frankenstorm, Global Warming/Climate Change, God Particle, Rogue Nukes, Solar Max, Near-Earth Asteroid. Media examples include the Mayan apocalypse frenzy in Russia, the US Presidential elections (Obamageddon, Romneygeddon), the threatened dissolution of the common currency in Europe (Eurogeddon), to the call for the United Nations to implement an ‘Armageddon-type’ policy to address previously undetected space rocks hurtling toward Earth.
“Our top words, phrases and names this year represent some five continents, which continues to confirm the ever-expanding nature of the English language.”
(See more on Apocalypse and Armageddon after the Top Words List.)
The Top Words of 2012 follow Rank/ Word / Comments
- Apocalypse / Armageddon, and variations thereof — The word Apocalypse has been in ascendance in the English for more than 500 years. However,recent years has witnessed an unprecedented resurgence of the word.
- Deficit — Looks like deficit-spending will plague Western democracies for at least the next decade. Note to economists of stripes: reducing the rate of increase of deficit spending actually increases the deficit.
- Olympiad — The Greeks measured time by the four-year interval between the Games. Moderns measure it by medal counts, rights fees and billions of eyeballs.
- Bak’tun — A cycle of 144,000 days in the Maya ‘Long Count’ Calendar. This bak’tun ends on December 21, 2012, also being called the Mayan Apocalypse. (Actually Maya ‘long-count’ calendars stretch hundreds of millions of years into the future, December 21st merely marks the beginning of a new cycle.)
- Meme — Internet Memes can best be conceived as thoughts or ideas rather than words, since they can and often do encompass sounds, photos, and text. Memes are propagated through every imaginable form of electronic communications, eventually surfacing in the traditional print and electronic media.
- MOOC — Massive Open Online Course; the nature of higher education is changing and MOOC is the phenomenon to watch.
- The Cloud — Neither the play by Aristophanes nor a forgotten title by Hitchcock, but rather where your data heads after you press <enter>.
- Omnishambles — From the UK and the top word of the Oxford American Dictionary team, where everything, everywhere seems to be in a state of disarray.
- Frankenstorm — Superstorm’s Sandy’s colloquial name. From a meteorologist’s lips to a globally recognized neologism within a few hours.
- Obesogenic — An environment that tends to encourage obesity. Lately it has been used to describe television advertisement that promote sugary and high-calorie snacks to kids.
- Hen — The Swedish attempt to create a gender-neutral pronoun to replace him or her or combinations thereof: hen.
- Derecho — A ‘land hurricane,’ a sudden storm with extremely strong, one-directional winds, such as the storm that swept from the Midwest into the Washington, D.C. area earlier this year.
- Hashtag — The ‘pound sign’ reborn as the all-powerful Twitter hash tag; what next a re-branding of the period as a ‘full stop’.
- Drones — Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that are piloted remotely or by on-board computers; mostly used for military applications.
- Fracking — The extraction of fossil fuels by hydraulic fracturing in rock formations, and injecting fluids to force the release of hitherto inaccessible hydrocarbons.
- Phobes — The Loyal Opposition? How 19th c. of you. Opponents (of either side) are now cast as fear-filled and hateful phobes or haters.
- Superfood — An non-scientific term used to describe foods that are calorie sparse and nutrient dense.
- The 47 — Presidential candidate Mitt Romney characterization of the percentage of Americans who pay no Federal taxes.
- YOLO — You Only Live Once meant to convey derision or astonishment.
- Adorkable — The rise of the Nerds! A portmanteau word from dork and adorable.
Listen to Last Year’s (2011) Top Words of the Year
The words Apocalypse and Armageddon are intermixed in the current English language media. New words or neologisms are created with both stems all referring to some type of ‘end-of-the-world-type’ phenomena. Both words stem from the final book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation in which the final battle between good and evil (Armageddon) is revealed (apokalyptein).
Apocalyptic terms are combination or ‘portmanteau’ words linking a root word with ‘apocalypse’ such as the Snowpocalypse in the Washington, D.C. area several years ago mentioned by President Obama. Apocalypse, itself, can be traced to the ancient Greek word apokalyptein meaning to ‘uncover, restore, reveal or disclose’ (hence the name of the final book of the New Testament. The Book of Revelation). The words apocalypse and apocalyptic are both frequent expressions of the global media especially when used in reference to any cataclysmic event such as the South Asian Tsunami or the inundation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, as GLM then noted.
Terms related to Armageddon are also portmanteau words that ultimately can be traced to the same source. The Greek word Harmagedōn and its Hebrew counterpart har məgiddô both refer to the ancient settlement of Megiddo. Megiddo stood astride important Middle Eastern trade routes and was subsequently the scene of many battles in Biblical times. The word ‘Armageddon’ has come to be associated in the popular mind with any end-of-the-world scenario, such as portrayed in the movie of the same name, starring Bruce Willis, or the ‘Carmageddon’ event in Los Angeles, where one of the main freeways was shut down for a number of hours.
Methodology: GLM’s Word of the Year rankings are based upon actual word usage throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion people. To qualify for these lists, the words, names, and phrases must be found globally, have a minimum of 25,000 citations. and the requisite ‘depth’ and ‘breadth’ of usage. Depth is here defined as appearing in various forms of media; breadth that they must appear world-over, not limited to a particular profession or social group or geography.
GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 275,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.
The Top Phrases of 2012
Rank / Phrase / Comment
- Gangnam Style: A South Korean YouTube video watched 1,000,000,000 times around the world cannot be ignored because it might be considered frivolous.
- Global Warming/Climate Change – No. 1 phrases for the first decade of the 21st century; still resonate well into its second decade.
- Fiscal Cliff — Sharp automatic tax increases and spending cuts to U.S. Federal programs that go into effect with the new year — if the Budget Control Act of 2011 is not addressed.
- The deficit—the difference between what the government takes in and what it spends—is projected to be reduced by roughly half in 2013
- God Particle — The ever-elusive Higgs Boson, the search for which, according to CERN, carries a 1 in 50,000,000 of creating a mini Black Hole that just might swallow the Earth. Oops.
- Rogue nukes — Iran and North Korea are the focus of attention again.
- Near-Earth Asteroid — Yet another year, another asteroid, another near-miss; this one slipping between the orbits of the Earth and the Moon.
- Binders Full of Women — Any unfortunate misstatement or turn of phrase, especially when viewed by some 50 million in a US Presidential Debate becomes immediately meme-worthy.
- Arab Spring — Still no Successor term as the Arab Spring morphs into something far more ominous.
- Solar max — The peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle; in 1854 solar storms melted telegraph wires; what’s in store for our all-pervasive electronic infrastructure?
- Big Data — No 1 on the 2012’s Tech List, ushering in a global transformation in how data is processed, analyzed, and turned into solutions.
- Ethical/Sustainable Fashion– A global movement that includes designs from indigenous communities and emerging peoples.
- Toxic Politics — See 2012 US Presidential Campaign.
- Citius, Altius, Fortius — (Faster, Higher, Stronger) The Olympic Motto, in Latin not Greek, of course.
- War Against Women — In the US an economic and social issue; in much of the world an issue of sexual slavery, honor killings, and lack of basic human rights.
The Top Names of 2012
Rank /Name / Comments
- Newtown and Malala Yousafzai (tie) — The Connecticut site of a horrific massacre of innocents; and the Pakistani girl shot by terrorists for promoting the right to education for girls.
- Xi Jinping — Replaces Hu Jintao, under whose administration China has seen a decade of extraordinary growth.
- Kate Middleton — With a baby on the way (and the publishing of photos of a most private nature), the Duchess of Cambridge maintains a high profile.
- President Obama – Hope and Change retreat further into the history books as Obama survives a brutal campaign.
- Mitt Romney — Soon to depart into the wormhole that most losing US Presidential candidates invariably find themselves. Dukakis? Mondale? Etc.
- London Olympics — A triumphal return to the Olympic stage that would have astounded those present at the first Post-War Games in 1948.
- Higgs Boson — The long-sought particle theorized to have been present at the creation, is confirmed in CERN experiments. (And, yes, Dr. Higgs, has lived to see confirmation of his conjecture.)
- Europe (E.U./ Eurogeddon) — United, breaking apart, saving the Euro, abandoning the Euro, with the UK again as an ‘interested onlooker’. How do you say ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’ in German.
- Felix Baumgartner — Austrian Felix Baumgartner becomes the first skydiver to break the speed of sound, reaching a maximum …
- Senkaku Islands — No one actually cares about these rocky, inhospitable outcroppings; it’s the mineral rights under surround seas of concern here.
- John Roberts — Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court at the center of the upholding of the Affordable Healthcare Act (or Obamacare).
- Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) — The current Prime Minister of Israel.
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — The current president of Iran, a largely ceremonial post.
- Christopher Stevens — Ambassador to Libya, gunned down at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
- Angela Merkel — The chancellor of Germany attempting to hold together the currency union and avoid the Eurogeddon.
Top Words of the Decade
The Top Words of the Decade Global Warming, 9/11, and Obama outdistanced Bailout, Evacuee, and Derivative; Google, Surge, Chinglish, and Tsunami followed. Climate Change was top phrase; Heroes was the top name.
Previous Words of the Year include:
2011:
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No.2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Arab Spring, No. 2 Royal Wedding, No.3 Anger and Rage
Top Names: No. 1 Steve Jobs, No. 2 Osama bin-laden and Seal Team Six, No.3 Fukushima
2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Spillcam, No. 2 Vuvuzela, No. 3 The Narrative
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama
2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama
2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 “Yes, We Can!”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps
2007:
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore
2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur
2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God
2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove
2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya
2002:
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)
2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros
2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)
About The Global Language Monitor
Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.
For more information, call 1.512.801.6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.
No. of Words
1,035,877.3
Number of Words in the English Language, January 1, 2016 estimate
.
Shakespeare Created 1700 Words in His Lifetime
The number of words in the English language is : 1,035,877.3 This is the estimate by the Global Language Monitor for January 1, 2016. The English Language passed the Million Word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. (GMT).
Currently there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day. For more information, go here.
The number of words in the English language is : 1,025,109.8. This is the estimate by the Global Language Monitor for January 1, 2014. The English Language passed the Million Word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. (GMT). The Millionth Word was the controversial ‘Web 2.0′.
Go here to see The Top Words of 2015.
Currently there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day.
Though GLM’s analysis was the subject of much controversy at the time, the recent Google/Harvard Study of the Current Number of Words in the English Language is 1,025,109.8. The above graphic is from the AAAS/Science as reported on NPR.
Google/Harvard Study Validates GLM’s No. of Words in English Prediction
GLM/Google vs OED and Webster’s 3rd
Follow GLM on Facebook . Follow GLM On Twitter
At the time the New York Times article on the historic threshold famously quoted several dissenting linguists as claiming that “even Google could not come up with” such a methodology. Unbeknownst to them Google was doing precisely that. The number of words in the English language according to GLM now stands at: 1,019,729.6. The difference between the two analyses is .0121%, which is widely considered statistically insignificant. Google’s number, which is based on the counting of the words in the 15,000,000 English language books it has scanned into the ‘Google Corpus,’ mirrors GLM’s Analysis. GLM’s number is based upon its algorithmic methodologies, explication of which is available from its site.
For Frequently Asked Questions about the Million Word March, go Here
Linguists Fret as the World Celebrates Global English
‘Millionth English word’ declared
A US web monitoring firm has declared the millionth English word to be Web 2.0, a term for the latest generation of web products and services.
Matt Frei reports on English’s unique linguistic evolution and then spoke to Global Language Monitor’s Paul Payack who helped find this millionth English word.
SEE ALSO
- The million words milestone(06.26)
- Millionth word milestone reached(05.26)
BBC NEWS | Programmes | World News America | ‘Millionth English word’ declared “As expected, English crossed the 1,000,000 word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am GMT. However, some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “English has become a universal means of communication; never before have so many people been able to communicate so easily with so many others.” The English language is now being studies by hundreds of millions around the globe for entertainment, commercial or scientific purposes. In 1960 there were some 250 million English speakers, mostly in former colonies and the Commonwealth countries. The future of English as a major language was very much in doubt. Today, some 1.53 billion people now speak English as a primary, auxiliary, or business language, with some 250 million acquiring the language in China alone.
There are 10,000 other stories hailing the arrival of the 1,000,000th word from Abu Dhabi, and Tehran, to Beijing, to Sydney, to Chicago and Sri Lanka. Quote of the Week:
“What’s interesting about a million is that it’s such a tiny number compared to all the words we could have,” said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading who studies the comings and goings of words across history. (Using any combination of seven consonants with two vowels, for example, creates more than 100-million potential words.) But even with a relatively small pile to call on, words are mostly fleeting. (The Oxford English Dictionary has a list of words that have appeared on record only once in hundreds of years.) A small number of essential words such as “two” or “you” – or their variations – are ancients in the language family, Dr. Pagel said. “Had you been wandering around the plains of Eurasia 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, you probably could have said ‘thou’ and someone would have know you were referring to them. We think that’s pretty astonishing.” Toronto Globe and Mail, June, 2008
Why Twitter was not in running for the 1,000,000th word Austin, Texas June 13, 2009 – Since the 1,000,000th word in the English announcement earlier this week, a number of news organizations have inquired as to why Twitter, the prominent microblog, was not on the final list of words considered for No. 1,000,000. According to Paul JJ Payack, president and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor, “The answer is quite straight-forward: Twitter is already a word, as is its companion, to tweet. Certainly, the 21st century definition of twittering is much different than that of the Middle English twiteren, which is similar to the Old High German zwizzirōn, both of which mean, well, to twitter or as Merriam-Webster’s defines it “to utter successive chirping noises” or “to talk in a chattering fashion”. Since it is already catalogued as a headword, 21st c. twittering is simply a new entry, a new definition, under the ancient headword, twitter”. IT Pro Portal Compares 12-month use of twitter vs Web 2.0 On June 10, the Global Language Monitor announced that Web 2.0 has bested Jai Ho, N00b and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase added to the codex of fourteen hundred-year-old language.
.
Web 2.0 beats Jai Ho & N00b as 1,000,000th English Word
English passed the Million Word mark earlier today, June 10 at 10:22 am GMT Word Number 1,000,001: Financial Tsunami Austin, Texas June 10, 2009 – The Global Language Monitor today announced that Web 2.0 has bested Jai Ho, N00b and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase. added to the codex of fourteen hundred-year-old language. Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services. It has crossed from technical jargon into far wider circulation in the last six months. Two terms from India, Jai Ho! and slumdog finished No. 2 and 4. Jai Ho! Is a Hindi exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment; Slumdog is an impolite term for children living in the slums. Just missing the top spot was n00b, a mixture of letters and numbers that is a derisive term for newcomer. It is also the only mainstream English word that contains within itself two numerals. Just missing the final five cut-off, was another technical term, cloud computing, meaning services that are delivered via the cloud. At its current rate, English generates about 14.7 words a day or one every 98 minutes. These are the fifteen finalists for the one millionth English word, all of which have met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution, and depth of citations. 1,000,000: Web 2.0 – The next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you. 999,999: Jai Ho! – The Hindi phrase signifying the joy of victory, used as an exclamation, sometimes rendered as “It is accomplished”. Achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire”.999,998: N00b — From the Gamer Community, a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term. 999,997: Slumdog – a formerly disparaging, now often endearing, comment upon those residing in the slums of India. 999,996: Cloud Computing – The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage. 999,995: Carbon Neutral — One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change. 999,994: Slow Food — Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores). 999,993: Octomom – The media phenomenon relating to the travails of the mother of the octuplets. 999,992: Greenwashing – Re-branding an old, often inferior, product as environmentally friendly.999,991: Sexting – Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content. 999,990: Shovel Ready – Projects are ready to begin immediately upon the release of federal stimulus funds. 999,989: Defriend – Social networking terminology for cutting the connection with a formal friend. 999,988: Chengguan – Urban management officers, a cross between mayors, sheriff, and city managers. 999,987: Recessionista – Fashion conscious who use the global economic restructuring to their financial benefit. 999,986: Zombie Banks – Banks that would be dead if not for government intervention and cash infusion.——————————————————————————————————— In addition, the 1,000,001st word is Financial Tsunami – The global financial restructuring that seemingly swept out of nowhere, wiping out trillions of dollars of assets, in a matter of months.
Each word was analyzed to determine which depth (number of citations) and breadth (geographic extent of word usage), as well as number of appearances in the global print and electronic media, the Internet, the blogosphere, and social media (such as Twitter and YouTube). The Word with the highest PQI score was deemed the 1,000,000th English language word. The Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) is used to track and analyze word usage. Global Language Monitor has been tracking English word creation since 2003. Once it identifies new words (or neologisms) it measures their extent and depth of usage with its PQI technology.
English Language Millionth Word Finalists Announced:
.
Includes alcopops, bangster, de-friend, n00b, quendy-trendy, slumdog, and wonderstar
English to Pass Millionth Word June 10 at 10:22 am GMT
Million Word March Now Stands at 999,824
Austin, Texas May 29, 2009 – The Global Language Monitor today announced the finalists for the Million Word March. The English Language will cross the 1,000,000 word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am Stratford-Upon-Avon time.
“The Million Word milestone brings to notice the coming of age of English as the first, truly global Language”, said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “There are three major trends involving the English language today: 1) An explosion in word creation; English words are being added to the language at the rate of some 14.7 words a day; 2) a geographic explosion where some 1.53 billion people now speak English around the globe as a primary, auxiliary, or business language; and 3) English has become, in fact, the first truly global language.”
Due to the global extent of the English language, the Millionth Word is as likely to appear from India, China, or East L.A.as it is to emerge from Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare’s home town). The final words and phrases under consideration are listed below. These words represent each of the categories of Global English that GLM tracks, Since English appears to be adding a new word every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words a day, the Global Language Monitor is selecting a representative sampling. You can follow the English Language WordClock counting down to the one millionth word at www.LanguageMonitor.com.
These words that are on the brink of entering the language as the finalists for the One Millionth English Word:
Australia: Alchopops – Sugary-flavored mixed drinks very much en vogue.
Chinglish: Chengguan – Urban management officers, a cross between mayors, sheriff, and city managers.
Economics: 1) Financial Tsunami – The global financial restructuring that seemingly swept out of nowhere, wiping out trillions of dollars of assets, in a matter of months. 2) Zombie Banks – Banks that would be dead if not for government intervention and cash infusion.
Entertainment: Jai Ho! — From the Hindi, “it is accomplished’ achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winner, “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Fashion: 1) Chiconomics – The ability to maintain one’s fashion sense (chicness) amidst the current financial crisis. 2) Recessionista – Fashion conscious who use the Global economic restructuring to their financial benefit; 3) Mobama – relating to the fashion-sense of the US First Lady, as in ‘that is quite mobamaish’.
Popular Culture: Octomom (the media phenomenon of the mother of the octuplets).
Green Living: 1) Green washing – Re-branding an old product as environmentally friendly. 2) E-vampire – Appliances and machines on standby-mode, which continually use electrical energy they ‘sleep’. 3) Slow food: — Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).
Hinglish: Chuddies – Ladies’ underwear or panties.
Internet: 1) De-follow – No longer following the updates of someone on a social networking site. 2) De-friend – No longer following the updates of a friend on a social networking site; much harsher than de-following. 3) Web 2.0 – The next generation of web services.
Language: Toki Pona – The only language (constructed or natural) with a trademark.
Million Word March: MillionWordWord — Default entry if no other word qualifies.
Music: Wonderstar – as in Susan Boyle, an overnight sensation, exceeding all reasonable expectations.
Poland: Bangsters – A description of those responsible for ‘predatory’ lending practices, from a combination of the words banker and gangster.
Politically incorrect: 1) Slumdog – a formerly disparaging comments upon those residing in the slums of India; Seatmates of size – US airline euphemism for passengers who carry enough weight to require two seats.
Politics: 1) Carbon neutral — One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change. 2) Overseas Contingency Operations – The Obama re-branding of the Bush War on Terror.
Sports: Phelpsian – The singular accomplishments of Michael Phelps at the Beijing Olympics.
Spirituality: Renewalist – Movements that encompass renewal of the spirit; also call ‘Spirit-filled’ movements.
Technology: 1) Cloud Computing – The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage. 2) N00b — From the Gamer Community; a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term. 3) Sexting – Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content.
YouthSpeak: Quendy-Trendy — British youth speak for hip or up-to-date.
Extra Credit:
French word with least chance of entering English Language: le courriel for E-Mail.
Most recognized English-language word on the planet: O.K.
Each word is being analyzed to determine which is attaining the greatest depth (number of citations) and breadth (geographic extent of word usage), as well as number appearances in the global print and electronic media, the Internet, the blogosphere, and social media (such as Twitter and YouTube). The Word with the highest PQI score will be deemed the 1,000,000th English language word. The Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) is used to track and analyze word usage.
Global Language Monitor has been tracking English word creation since 2003. Once it identifies new words (or neologisms) it measures their extent and depth of usage with its PQI technology.
In Shakespeare’s day, there were only 2,000,000 speakers of English and fewer than 100,000 words. Shakespeare himself coined about 1,700 words. Thomas Jefferson invented about 200 words, and George W. Bush created a handful, the most prominent of which is, misunderestimate. US President Barack Obama’s surname passed into wordhood last year with the rise of obamamania.
Pick the Definition, May 28, 2009
Test your vocabulary skills on words about to officially enter the English language
.
.
The English Conquest (May 17, 2009)
. .
Chinglish Enriches English Vocabulary with Chinese Features (May 13)
News Magazine
The words in the mental cupboard
Watch: When Does a Word Become a Word?
BBC World Service, April 22, 2009
Special Report, April 23, 2009
Neologisms
It’s difficult to track the number of words in the English language, since neologisms–new words–are coined every day. The Global Language Monitor claims our lexicon will welcome its millionth word by the end of this month; other experts disagree.Whenever it does occur, will the millionth word be something from the business world, like “carpocalypse,” describing the state of the automotive industry? Or from Hollywood, like “momager,” the mother of a celebrity who also serves as business manager? In these stories, we look at our changing language and highlight some of the new words that have entered it.
Read on and you won’t be an ugsome noob.
The Economist Predictions for 2009 Preview:
English Marks a Million
Listen to the segment on Morning Edition
Save the Date: English nears a milestone (Christian Science Monitor)
News Forcaster: When will English pass 1 million words?
Current forecast: after 3/30/08 and before 4/30/08 (45% chance)
A Contrary View of the Million Word March
ENGLISH AND ITS ODDITIES ; The word factory keeps producing
The Million Word March in Smithsonian Magazine
. .
THE WORLD IN WORDS: Top Words of 2008
.
Essay: The Number of Words in the English Language
There are many things in the Universe that can never be precisely measured but that doesn’t stop Humankind from attempting to take their measure.
For example, there are on the order of:
- 7,000 human languages and dialects (6,912 to be precise);
- About 50,000 ideograms in the various Chinese dialects (though countless more words);
- About 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy (and some 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe);
- Over 35,500,000 residents of California;
- And then there are 10 raised to the power of 72 atomic particles in the universe; that is, precisely:
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atomic particles;
- There are fewer than 100,000 words in the French language;
- There are some some 6.5 billion folks on the planet; (and about 20 billion that have ever walked upon the Earth);
- Fewer than 20,000 different words in the Bible, (actually, 12,143 in the English, 783,137 total in the King James Version, 8,674 in the Hebrew Old Testament, and 5,624 in the Greek New Testament);
- And 24,000 differing words to be found in the complete works of Shakespeare, about 1,700 of which he invented.
Finally, if you emptied all the water out of Lake Tahoe and spread it evenly over all of California it would be about 14 inches deep, Not that anyone would ever attempt to do so. Or actually care.
Which brings us to the number of words in English.
The central idea of writing is, of course, the idea. Ideas by their very nature are wispy sorts of things. This being so, you can’t grab an idea and do with it what you will. Rather the best for which one can hope is to encapsulate the idea and preserve it for time immemorial in some sort of ethereal amber. We call this amber, language; the basic building block of which is, of course, the word. (We are speaking now as poets and not as linguists.)
As such, writers of English have the good fortune of having hundreds of thousands of words from which to choose. When you think of it, the English language writer always has at least three words for any idea, each rooted in the Latin, the Germanic or Saxon tongues, and the Greek. Think of a word for human habitation: city, town, metropolis, and so on. And that’s just the start. In the English-speaking world we also owe a heavy debt to Algonquin, and Hebrew, and Malay (ketchup anyone?) and Maori, and Zulu and Hmong among a multitude of others. I think you can spot the beginnings of a trend here.
And then there is the entire realm of ”jargon,” scientific and otherwise, those specialized patois or vocabularies known only to those in specific fields. Computer-related jargon is multiplying at an extraordinary rate. And since English has become the lingua Franca of the Internet, English words are being created and non-English words co-opted at an ever-quickening pace.
Scientists estimate that there are approximately 10,000,000,000 neurons in a typical human brain. Each of these neurons can theorectically interconnect with all the rest.
This being so, the number of interconnects within a single human brain is greater than the entire number of atomic particles in the universe.
If you equate these interconnects to ideas, or even thoughts, the number of potential words needed to express them is, indeed, staggering on the order of billions and billions of trillions.
This being said, I now unequivocally state that as of the 1st day of January in the year 2012 AD (or CE, whatever your preference), we estimate that there will be some 1,013,913 words in the English language, plus or minus a handful.
Choose well among them.
PJJP
Austin, Texas, USA
#####################################################
#####################################################>
Number of Words in the English Language: 1,025,109.8
The number of words in the English language is: 1,025,109.8. This is the estimate by the Global Language Monitor on January 1, 2014.
The English Language passed the Million Word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. (GMT). The Millionth Word was the controversial ‘Web 2.0′. Currently there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day.
Google Validates GLM’s No. of Words in English Prediction
GLM/Google vs OED and Webster’s 3rd
Follow GLM on Facebook . Follow GLM On Twitter
For more detail, go here.
Though GLM’s analysis was the subject of much controversy at the time, the recent Google/Harvard Study of the Current Number of Words in the English Language is 1,022,000. The above graphic is from the AAAS /Science as reported on NPR. At the time the New York Times article on the historic threshold famously quoted several dissenting linguists as claiming that “even Google could not come up with” such a methodology. At that time, unbeknownst to them Google was doing precisely that.
The number of words in the English language according to GLM now stands at: 1,025,109.8. The difference between the two analyses is .0121%, which is widely considered statistically insignificant.
Google’s number, which is based on the counting of the words in the 15,000,000 English language books it has scanned into the ‘Google Corpus,’ mirrors GLM’s Analysis. GLM’s number is based upon its algorithmic methodologies, explication of which is available from its site.
One Millionth Word Announced
Web 2.0 beats Jai Ho & N00b as 1,000,000th English Word
English passed the Million Word mark earlier today, June 10 at 10:22 am GMT
Word Number 1,000,001: Financial Tsunami
Austin, Texas June 10, 2009 – The Global Language Monitor today announced that Web2.0 has bested Jai Ho,N00b and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase. added to the codex of fourteen hundred-year-old language. Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services. It has crossed from technical jargon into far wider circulation in the last six months. Two terms from India, Jai Ho!and slumdog finished No. 2 and 4. Jai Ho! Is a Hindi exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment; Slumdogis an impolite term for children living in the slums. Just missing the top spot was n00b, a mixture of letters and numbers that is a derisive term for newcomer. It is also the only mainstream English word that contains within itself two numerals. Just missing the final five cut-off, was another technical term, cloud computing, meaning services that are delivered via the cloud. At its current rate, English generates about 14.7 words a day or one every 98 minutes.
‘Millionth English word’ declared
A US web monitoring firm has declared the millionth English word to be Web 2.0, a term for the latest generation of web products and services.
Matt Frei reports on English’s unique linguistic evolution and then spoke to Global Language Monitor’s Paul Payack who helped find this millionth English word.
SEE ALSO
- The million words milestone(06.26)
- Millionth word milestone reached(05.26)
BBC NEWS | Programmes | World News America | ‘Millionth English word’ declared
“As expected, English crossed the 1,000,000 word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am GMT. However, some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “English has become a universal means of communication; never before have so many people been able to communicate so easily with so many others.”
The English language is now being studies by hundreds of millions around the globe for entertainment, commercial or scientific purposes. In 1960 there were some 250 million English speakers, mostly in former colonies and the Commonwealth countries. The future of English as a major language was very much in doubt. Today, some 1.53 billion people now speak English as a primary, auxiliary, or business language, with some 250 million acquiring the language in China alone.
These are the fifteen finalists for the one millionth English word, all of which have met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution, and depth of citations.
1,000,000: Web 2.0 – The next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you.
999,999: Jai Ho! – The Hindi phrase signifying the joy of victory, used as an exclamation, sometimes rendered as “It is accomplished”. Achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire”.
999,998: N00b — From the Gamer Community, a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term.
999,997: Slumdog – a formerly disparaging, now often endearing, comment upon those residing in the slums of India.
999,996: Cloud Computing – The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage.
999,995: Carbon Neutral — One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change.
999,994: Slow Food — Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).
999,993: Octomom – The media phenomenon relating to the travails of the mother of the octuplets.
999,992: Greenwashing – Re-branding an old, often inferior, product as environmentally friendly.
999,991: Sexting – Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content.
999,990: Shovel Ready – Projects are ready to begin immediately upon the release of federal stimulus funds.
999,989: Defriend – Social networking terminology for cutting the connection with a formal friend.
999,988: Chengguan – Urban management officers, a cross between mayors, sheriff, and city managers.
999,987: Recessionista – Fashion conscious who use the global economic restructuring to their financial benefit.
999,986: Zombie Banks – Banks that would be dead if not for government intervention and cash infusion.
———————————————————————————————————
In addition, the 1,000,001st word is Financial Tsunami – The global financial restructuring that seemingly swept out of nowhere, wiping out trillions of dollars of assets, in a matter of months
Each word was analyzed to determine which depth (number of citations) and breadth (geographic extent of word usage), as well as number of appearances in the global print and electronic media, the Internet, the blogosphere, and social media (such as Twitter and YouTube). The Word with the highest PQI score was deemed the 1,000,000th English language word. The Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) is used to track and analyze word usage.
Global Language Monitor has been tracking English word creation since 2003. Once it identifies new words (or neologisms) it measures their extent and depth of usage with its PQI technology. For more information call 512.815.8336.
Millionth Word Finalists Announced
English Language Millionth Word Finalists Announced, including: alcopops, bangster, de-friend, n00b, quendy-trendy, slumdog, and wonderstar
English to Pass Millionth Word June 10 at 10:22 am GMT
Million Word March Now Stands at 999,824
Austin, Texas May 29, 2009 – The Global Language Monitor today announced the finalists for the Million Word March. The English Language will cross the 1,000,000 word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am Stratford-Upon-Avon time.
“The Million Word milestone brings to notice the coming of age of English as the first, truly global Language”, said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “There are three major trends involving the English language today: 1) An explosion in word creation; English words are being added to the language at the rate of some 14.7 words a day; 2) a geographic explosion where some 1.53 billion people now speak English around the globe as a primary, auxiliary, or business language; and 3) English has become, in fact, the first truly global language.”
Due to the global extent of the English language, the Millionth Word is as likely to appear from India, China, or East L.A.as it is to emerge from Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare’s home town). The final words and phrases under consideration are listed below. These words represent each of the categories of Global English that GLM tracks, Since English appears to be adding a new word every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words a day, the Global Language Monitor is selecting a representative sampling. You can follow the English Language WordClock counting down to the one millionth word at www.LanguageMonitor.com.
These words that are on the brink of entering the language as the finalists for the One Millionth English Word:
Australia: Alchopops – Sugary-flavored mixed drinks very much en vogue.
Chinglish: Chengguan – Urban management officers, a cross between mayors, sheriff, and city managers.
Economics: 1) Financial Tsunami – The global financial restructuring that seemingly swept out of nowhere, wiping out trillions of dollars of assets, in a matter of months. 2) Zombie Banks – Banks that would be dead if not for government intervention and cash infusion.
Entertainment: Jai Ho! — From the Hindi, “it is accomplished’ achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winner, “Slumdog Millionaire”.
Fashion: 1) Chiconomics – The ability to maintain one’s fashion sense (chicness) amidst the current financial crisis. 2) Recessionista – Fashion conscious who use the Global economic restructuring to their financial benefit; 3) Mobama – relating to the fashion-sense of the US First Lady, as in ‘that is quite mobamaish’.
Popular Culture: Octomom (the media phenomenon of the mother of the octuplets).
Green Living: 1) Green washing – Re-branding an old product as environmentally friendly. 2) E-vampire – Appliances and machines on standby-mode, which continually use electrical energy they ‘sleep’. 3) Slow food: — Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).
Hinglish: Cuddies – Ladies’ underwear or panties.
Internet: 1) De-follow – No longer following the updates of someone on a social networking site. 2) De-friend – No longer following the updates of a friend on a social networking site; much harsher than de-following. 3) Web 2.0 – The next generation of web services.
Language: Toki Pona – The only language (constructed or natural) with a trademark.
Million Word March: MillionWordWord — Default entry if no other word qualifies.
Music: Wonderstar – as in Susan Boyle, an overnight sensation, exceeding all realsonable expectations.
Poland: Bangsters – A description of those responsible for ‘predatory’ lending practices, from a combination of the words banker and gangster.
Politically incorrect: 1) Slumdog – a formerly disparaging comments upon those residing in the slums of India; 2) Seatmates of size – US airline euphemism for passengers who carry enough weight to require two seats.
Politics: 1) Carbon neutral — One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change. 2) Overseas Contingency Operations – The Obama re-branding of the Bush War on Terror.
Sports: Phelpsian – The singular accomplishments of Michael Phelps at the Beijing Olympics.
Spirituality: Renewalist – Movements that encompass renewal of the spirit; also call ‘Spirit-filled’ movements.
Technology: 1) Cloud Computing – The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage. 2) N00b — From the Gamer Community; a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term. 3) Sexting – Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content.
YouthSpeak: Quendy-Trendy — British youth speak for hip or up-to-date.
Extra Credit:
French word with least chance of entering English Language: le courriel – E-Mail.
Most recognized English-language word on the planet: O.K.
Each word is being analyzed to determine which is attaining the greatest depth (number of citations) and breadth (geographic extent of word usage), as well as number appearances in the global print and electronic media, the Internet, the blogosphere, and social media (such as Twitter and YouTube). The Word with the highest PQI score will be deemed the 1,000,000th English language word. The Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) is used to track and analyze word usage.
Global Language Monitor has been tracking English word creation since 2003. Once it identifies new words (or neologisms) it measures their extent and depth of usage with its PQI technology.
In Shakespeare’s day, there were only 2,000,000 speakers of English and fewer than 100,000 words. Shakespeare himself coined about 1,700 words. Thomas Jefferson invented about 200 words, and George W. Bush created a handful, the most prominent of which is, misunderestimate. US President Barack Obama’s surname passed into wordhood last year with the rise of obamamania.
About The Global Language Monitor
Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. For more information, email info@ GlobalLanguageMonitor.com, visit www.LanguageMonitor.com, or call +1.925.367.7557.
A Million Words and Counting
If you are interested in learning more about the Million Word March, you can read about it in “A Million Words and Counting” by Paul JJ Payack. This book from Kensington’s Citadel imprint takes you on a whirlwind tour of the English language and it dramatic impact on the various aspects of culture, including politics, the economy, entertainment, commerce and technology. Now available as a quality paperback.
For more information, please call 512.801.6823 or email info@languagemonitor.com
<
ENGLISH AND ITS ODDITIES; The word factory keeps producing
ENGLISH AND ITS ODDITIES; The word factory keeps producing
Editorial, March 4 2009
One million. These days, with billions in bailouts and trillions in debts, a million of anything doesn’t seem like all that much.
But a million English words? Hat and cat and poll and prestidigitation?
Sure, the dictionary’s full of words. But a regular Webster’s has only about 200,000 words in it. And the gold standard of English dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary, which comes in volumes, contains only about 600,000. And the average American’s vocabulary? 20,000 words. Ouch
Obviously, the Global Language Monitor knows more than the Oxford folks. That’s the organization contending English will add its one millionth word sometime next month
The group can’t, of course, foretell what that word will be. Maybe it’ll be a kid word, like “janky,” also sometimes spelled “jainky” or “jinky.” (These things are always fluid.) It apparently means anything from “substandard” to “weird” and often relates to other people. “That guy is sure janky!”
Superlatives are often expressed in new-slang: “Wooka,” for instance, is said to be the hottest way to say “Wow!” And “nang” means “absolutely fantastic!”
The Urban Dictionary, an online and hard-bound resource for slang- sensitive people, tries to keep current as the vernacular evolves. This is not easy; it offers a new word each day. “Gank,” it says, means “to steal.” “I didn’t have any money, so I ganked it.”
“Yinz” is the new way to say “y’all,” “you guys” or “you.”
“Janhvi” is a really amazing person who knows how to be a great friend
English has absorbed a variety of computer geekisms: “lol,” meaning “laugh out loud,” and, a kid-related warning, “prw,” meaning, “parents are watching.” And, by the way, “geek” itself is so far “out” of the argot that it has turned up in the dictionary. And it has a possible origin: It might be an alteration of the Low German “gek.” That’s pretty establishment
Of course, most of the words mentioned here have undoubtedly vanished from the patois, never to pass young lips again. As soon as adults become aware of a new slang word, you can bet it’s no longer “in,” “hot,” “with it.”
It’s sooooo lame, as nobody would say anymore.
*****(**
Obama Narrative 2.0
Out-of-touch moves into No. 1 position over Deficit Spending; Oil Spill tops Health Care Reformer
Austin, Texas, July 24, 2010 – As the political calendar inexorably heads toward the Mid-term elections, the focus on President Obama’s competing ‘narratives’ continue to play out in the media.
Since his Oval Address on the Oil Spill, Obama’s personal narrative is being shaped by forces largely out of his control, such as the on-going Gulf drama. These are how the five most prevalent competing narratives compare, according to Austin-based Global Language Monitor (GLM). GLM has been monitoring the language of politics since 2003.
The ranking of the President’s five most prominent narrative arcs include:
- Obama as out-of-touch or aloof – This is up 1200% since the beginning of the year; this is the converse of Hope and Change.
- Obama and the deficit — Words linking Obama to deficit have increased some 2500% since the beginning of 2010.
- Obama and the Oil Spill — A very fast mover now ahead of Obama as Health Care reformer. Could the completion of the relief well turn this around?
- Obama as HealthCare Reformer — Losing steam quickly for the president’s signature achievement.
- Obama as the Chicago-style pol — A continued, steady rise in linking Obama to old-style Chicago politics.
“At this point, all five narratives in play are problematic for the president,” said Paul JJ Payack, GLM’s president and chief word analyst. “With the Mid-terms some hundred days away, the president needs a series of (possibly unexpected) positive events to stem this tide.”
Obama Narrative 2.0, the underlying storyline that will largely define the president in the run-up to the Mid-term elections and, possibly, for time remaining in his term. The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and other social media outlets on the Internet, as well as the leading print and electronic databases.
The NarrativeTracker Index (NTI), the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving any particular topic. Because the NTI is based on the national discourse, it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. In addition to the NTI, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the opinions surrounding a single issue.
NTI tracks the ‘narrative’ of a subject, as well as projecting future trajectories for the narrative. The result has several advantages over traditional polls: 1) Immediacy; 2) The lack of any bias that tends to creep into traditional polling, e.g., when individuals answer questions with what they think are the ‘correct’ answers rather than their true opinions; and 3) NTI lets policy and decision makers focus on the true issues driving perceptions and concerns rather than being driven by false and phantom concepts. In addition, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative.
NTI is more effective in capturing the true opinion of the public because it tracks unfiltered keywords in Social Media and other sources, rather than how that opinion is interpreted by the news media or by pollsters.
The NTI is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ (PQI™). The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.
*******
OK: 175 years old and going strong
Most Recognized Word on the Planet: OK or O.K. or Okay
March 23, 2014. This week is the 175th anniversary of one of the great moments in the English Language: the old Boston Post newspaper printing the phrase ‘oll korrect’, in a bit of humorous wordplay back in 1839.
Earlier this afternoon, we performed a simple Google search for the word; the search returned some 1,200,000,000 references to OK. Not bad for a word no one is quite sure how to spell.
OK is now widely heard wherever one sets foot on the planet.
U.S. President Martin Van Buren (A.D. 1837–1841) was born in Old Kinderhook, New York. His nickname, Old Kinderhook, was incorporated into his re-election campaign slogan in 1840 (“Old Kinderhook is O.K.”). O.K. Democratic Clubs sprung up around the young nation. Van Buren was a founding member of the Democratic Party. (He was overwhelmingly defeated by the Whigs in his re-election attempt.)
Alternative derivations, since disproven, suggested that OK was from the Greek phrase ola kala for ‘all is well’ used in the shipping industry. Another, actually favored by president Woodrow Wilson, was that OK was derived from the Native American language of the Choctaw ‘okeh’.
However, what is well-documented is that the U.S. Presidential Election of 1840 catalyzed OK’s already growing usage and subsequent global expansion during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After World War II, US hegemony cemented its global propagation.
As English became the world’s first, true global language with some 1.83 billion speakers, dominance of the software of the Microsoft Corporation further embedded it everyday use on the Internet. Some 80% of its computer programs that are ‘localized’ into native languages use the English word OK to assert completion or assent.
For good measure, the successful completion of a server response on the World Wide Web (of which there are billions every second) is defined as OK.
Now with the proliferation of social media, the word itself has further evolved with its shortening to the single letter, k.
OK?
#####################################################
###############################################
One Week Before Rio Olympics, Ambushers Prevail Over TOP Sponsors
-
Samsung Tops all TOP Sponsors
-
Can P&G Recover?
-
Internet Media Buzz in Sharp Decline
Austin, TEXAS, July 28, 2016 — In the last eighteen months the Rio Summer Games have been battered by incompetent planning, a bankrupt government, an impeached president, construction snafus, delays and simple negligence. This, too, was reflected in the Global Language Monitor’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI), which tracks the closeness of the relationship between branded entities in this case, the Rio Summer Olympics and its TOP Sponsors. Eighteen months ago the average BAI between and among the Rio Olympics and its TOP Sponsors registered higher than that of the London Summer Games. After the deluge of bad news engulfed the on-coming Games, the BAI tumbled to about half the London levels until beginning to rise, once again, about three months ago.
“The two charts that follow, the Rio Final Pre-Game Ranking by BAI and Percentage Change, raise significant questions about some of the Game’s’ most steadfast TOP Sponsors, including P&G/Gillette and Panasonic,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “On the other hand Samsung has the look of an oncoming locomotive, with the potential of leaving the other Top Sponsors in the dust.”
The final numbers are in for the run-up to the Rio Summer Games — and the Ambushers continue to lead the TOP Sponsors in nine of the top fifteen spots. Samsung, the top Top Sponsor has increased its already strong lead, beating Ambushers Nike and Starbucks the top Ambushers ranking No. 2 and 3 overall followed by TOP Sponsors Coca-Cola, Dow and McDonald’s. Ambushers Pepsi, Red Bull, DuPont, and Top Sponsor Omega followed. Overall, Nine of the Top Fifteen Places were held by Ambushers, as shown below.
P&G/Gillette falls some 200 BAI points since the London Games and ends up at No. 19, its worst showing to date. The chart also shows Coke, Dow and McDonald’s all scoring over 100, while Omega and GE remain strong in the mid-70s. Bridgestone remains a question mark after tumbling from a very strong debut at 18-months out by about 150 BAI points.
Below is the change of the TOP Sponsors’ (and the non-Affiliated Marketers’) BAI since the London Summer Games. As you can see, Samsung records the top increases rising from a BAI of 5.11 at London to some 376.17 during the final Rio Pre-Games measurement last week. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Top Sponsors Atos Origin and Visa Card each down over 90% since London, followed by Ambusher Subway, down some 99.66%.
As is rather dramatically demonstrated by the Percentage Change chart above, Omega is making a major charge up the chart marking a nine-fold improvement in brand awareness since London. The only other TOP Sponsor to increase in the hundreds of percent range is Dow that has improved nearly 400 percent since London.
According to the current study, the TOP Olympic Sponsors, who spend up to $1 billion, or more, per Olympic cycle, and their products are making a dramatically smaller impact on the Olympic audience, in terms of Internet Media Buzz (IMB) than those of the London (2012) and Sochi (2014) Games, as shown below.
The following charts provide a variety of differing insights into the study.
Red Bull and Nike are both Ambusher stars that appear to be converging at the Rio Summer Games.
P&G/Gillette and Ambusher Unilever appear to be heading in opposite directions.
Coca-Cola remains strong while Ambusher Pepsi is holding its own.
McDonald’s rises modestly since London, wile Samsung reaches hitherto uncharted heights.
The following chart shows the number of Ambushers that have Increased their BAI by more than 100% since the London Games.
Impact of the Zika Virus
GLM’s next step is to chart the trends associated with each brand’s ‘
About the Study
Download the Study Now!
The 2016 Rio Summer Olympics Brand Scorecard.GLM’s analysis is part of GLM’s on-going longitudinal study stretching back to the Summer Games in Beijing (2008) and forward to the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The study uses GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) to track how often brand names are linked to the Olympics in global print and electronic media and social networks. GLM also uses the Entity Affiliation Index (EAI), to track non-branded entities in the same manner. The Zika virus is such a non-branded entity.
For the Rio Summer Games 2016 there are eleven Official Top Sponsors:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strict regulations in place to protect its official international partners and prevent ambushing official Olympic partners and sponsors, such as Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter which prohibits athletes working with non-affiliated marketers during the Games, though there are reports that the rule is being modified for RIO.
Methodology. Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 350,000 print and electronic news media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) as they emerge. The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.
For more information call +1.512.801.6823 or email: Info@LanguageMonitor.
#####################################################
#####################################################
& Non-binary" href="https://languagemonitor.com/olympics/top-trending-words-and-phrases-of-2016-bigly-brexit-non-binary/">Top Trending Words and Phrases of 2016: Bigly, Brexit & Non-binary
Top Trending Words and Phrases of 2016, Thus Far: Bigly, Brexit & Non-binary
This is preliminary to GLM’s fourteenth annual Word of the Year (#WOTY) rankings that will be released on November 16, 2016.
“By the sixteenth year of the 20th century, the world was already awash in the trends that would influence the rest of the century, reaching all the way into the early 21st century.” said Paul JJ Payack, chief word analyst, the Global Language Monitor. “The twenty-first century trends that accompany these words might similarly portend far greater events than they represent today..”
The Top Trending Words of 2016 are listed below (Rank, Word, and Comment).
Top Trending Words for 2016, thus far.
Rank, Word, Commentary
Perhaps the first emoji. The unpronounceable symbol representing the singer formerly known as Prince.
15. Tennessine — New element on the periodic table, with Atomic number 117 and the symbol Ts. Some wags say to honor Bluegrass, more likely the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.Others under consideration a number of trending words that not yet meet the triple threshold test, but might qualify as the year further unfolds.
In December 2015, Austin, Texas-based GLM announced that Microaggression in its various manifestations was the Top Word of 2015.— The brief, everyday exchanges that send mostly unintended derogatory messages to members of various minority groups.
Trigger — Any action that might elicit feelings of discomfit or distress.
Unsafe — The feelings a student encounters when without warning they are confronted with subject matter or situations that have elicited feelings of discomfit or distress.
Snowflake — What unconcerned students call those with the need for safe spaces and warnings about possible trigger events.Migrant Crisis was the Top Phrase of 2015, while Donald J. Trump, was the surprise Top Name of 2015.To see the Top Words of 2015, and the Top Words, Phrases, and Names of the 21st century go here.The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion speakers (January 2013 estimate) GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 300,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.About the Global Language Monitor
In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known.
Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.
These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print and electronic media, as well as the global fashion industry, among others.
For more information, call 1.512.801.6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.
More Troubling News Rio and its Partners
Internet Media Buzz for Rio is at All-time Olympic Low; TOP Sponsor Link to Zika is Rising
Austin, TEXAS, June 15, 2016 — In its on-going, quadrennial, longitudinal analysis the Global Language Monitor has discovered another troubling trend for the TOP partners in the 2016 Rio Summer Games. The new trend, uncovered in the analysis, is that of a large and disturbing ‘Value Leak,’ affecting Top Sponsors, Ambush Marketers, the Rio Olympics, and the Olympic brand itself.
A Value Leak exists where a product, service, or event is valued at a certain rate and then original value ‘leaks’ out for any number of reasons. In the case of the Rio Summer Olympics, part of the value dissipated by the ever-more clever machinations of the non-affiliated marketers (NAM) that GLM Has been tracking for years. This information is being compiled for the upcoming edition of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics Brand Scorecard.
However, the newly analyzed value leak concerns Internet Media Buzz itself, as shown below.
The Decline of Internet Media Buzz From London to Rio
In an era where Internet media buzz make a real emotive connection with the product being sold, eyeballs can prove to be a perhaps a far inferior method of measuring the audiences emotive connections, especially since spectacles can be viewed in the same manner — and on the same stations — as more serious content.
Accordingly, the Global Language Monitor has adopted the term ‘heartstrings’ to refer to the volume of Internet Media Buzz (IMB) accounted for.
According to the current study, the TOP Olympic Sponsors, who spend up to $1 billion, or more, per Olympic cycle, and their products are making a dramatically smaller impact on the Olympic audience, in terms of Internet Media Buzz (IMB) than those of the London (2012) and Sochi (2014) Games.
GLM is currently creating an Economic Value Unit (EVU) that will estimate in dollar terms the size of the value leak for each of the TOP Sponsors during the current quadrennial.
If the total Internet Media Buzz for 2012 London Summer Olympics is consider as base 100, then the relative percentage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics
follow:
These changes have little to do with the passive eyeballs of television but rather the emotional ‘heartstrings’ that measure the intensity of the connection between the brands and the events at the Games.
As you can see from the chart, all TOP Sponsors are impacted with the exception of Atos Origin, whose score can be consider statistical noise.
GLM’s next step is to chart the trends associated with each brand’s ‘affiliation’ with the Zika virus in internet media buzz measurements
About the Study
The 2016 Rio Summer Olympics Brand Scorecard.GLM’s analysis has previously revealed:
- The overall study points to a relative decline of the Olympic brand.
- The connection between the brands of the Rio Olympics and that of its sponsors seem to be loosening.
- The connection between the brands of the Rio Olympics, the sponsors, and the Zika virus are actually tightening.
This analysis is part of GLM’s on-going longitudinal study stretching back to the Summer Games in Beijing (2008) and forward to the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The study uses GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) to track how often brand names are linked to the Olympics in global print and electronic media and social networks. GLM also uses the Entity Affiliation Index (EAI), to track non-branded entities in the same manner. The Zika virus is such a non-branded entity.
For the Rio Summer Games 2016 there are eleven Official Top Sponsors:
Coca-cola, Bridgestone, McDonald’s, P&G, GE, Omega, Samsung, Panasonic, Dow, Visa Card, and Atos Origin. Currently GLM is tracking some eleven Non-affiliated Marketers competing against the Top Sponsors, including: IBM Global Services, Siemens AG, Pepsi, Nike, DuPont, Starbucks, Red Bull, Rolex, Philips, Lunss, and Subway, among others.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strict regulations in place to protect its official international partners and prevent ambushing official Olympic partners and sponsors, such as Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter which prohibits athletes working with non-affiliated marketers during the Games, though there are reports that the rule is being modified for RIO.
Methodology. Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 350,000 print and electronic news media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) as they emerge. The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.
For more information call +1.512.801.6823 or email: Info@LanguageMonitor.com.
#####################################################
#####################################################
Three Troubling Trends for the Rio Olympics
Interest in the Rio Olympics and its Sponsors is Declining …
According to a Long-Term Longitudinal Study
Tracking the Games Since 2008
Austin, Texas, Memorial Day Weekend 2016 — The Global Language Monitor has discovered three troubling trends for the Rio Olympics, its Sponsors (and Ambushers), and the Olympic brand itself in its ongoing, longitudinal, Internet media buzz analysis, the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics Brand Scorecard.
GLM’s analysis has revealed the following:
- The overall study points to a relative decline of the Olympic brand.
- The connection between the brands of the Rio Olympics and that of its sponsors seem to be loosening.
- The connection between the brands of the Rio Olympics, the sponsors, and the Zika virus are actually tightening.
The June 2016 edition of the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics Brand Scorecard will be released later this week.
This analysis is part of GLM’s on-going longitudinal study stretching back to the Summer Games in Beijing (2008) and forward to the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The study uses GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) to track how often brand names are linked to the Olympics in global print and electronic media and social networks. GLM also uses the Entity Affiliation Index (EAI), to track non-branded entities in the same manner. The Zika virus is such a non-branded entity.
Overall, there are a number of other concerns regarding the Games, including the construction of the venues falling significantly behind schedule, the impeachment and subsequent replacement of the president of Brazil, rampant pollution, and, of course — and a rising concern over the Zika virus epidemic as the Games approach.
According to the study, the TOP Olympic Sponsors, who spend up to $1 billion, or more, per Olympic cycle, should be concerned that their products are making a smaller impact on the Olympic audience for the Rio Summer games, than those of past Olympiads, particularly, London (2012) and Sochi (2014).
These changes have little to do with the passive eyeballs of television passive eyeballs but rather the emotional ‘heartstrings’ that measure the intensity of the connection between the brands and the events at the Games.
The Current Brand Scorecard
Of some concern is the fact that the overall numbers across the board are trending lower than those of the London Games. This means that the aggregate score of global Internet Media Buzz is significantly lower than that measured for the London Games. This effect of lower level of media buzz is also seen impacting individual sponsors (and ambushers),
For example, Proctor & Gamble (P&G) has shown a significant decline in its BAI, at this time. As you can see from the chart, P&G now occupies the twentieth position overall and the tenth position (out of eleven) among the Top Sponsors. Top Sponsors can, of course, gain strength, sometimes significantly so, as the Games approach. For example, at the last Summer Olympics in London, P&G finished with a rather disappointing 31.70 BAI. However, P&G rebounded with a score of 205.00, an increase of a solid 173.30.
Overall standings in the current GLM Brand Scorecard follow.
For this example, we separated out Gillette from P&G, since it’s running the “Perfect Isn’t Pretty” Campaign in the run-up to the Games. However in the current rankings P&G (8.30) stands at No. 19 overall.
Perhaps surprisingly, P&G scored about 30% higher on the BAI than Gillette did.
A closer look at the volatility in P&G’s performance since London is shown below:
Adding to the problem, you have well-respected organizations such as the World Health Organization declaring a public ‘health emergency’, and a recent article in the Harvard Public Health Review, describing the potential of the Rio Games to engender the spread the zika virus to the rest of the world as a ‘full blown global health disaster’.
Impact of the Zika Virus
In the first independent analysis of the impact of the Zika Virus on the Rio Summer Games, GLM found two significant trends:
- There is a significant and growing impact on the Games themselves, and
- There is a greater impact on individual sponsors.
The impact of these factors, for a number of companies, is significant and growing.
The overall impact on the Rio Games themselves is charted below with data points with an added trend line.
The trendline alone is disconcerting in the extreme.
For the Rio Summer Games 2016 there are eleven Official Top Sponsors:
Coca-cola, Bridgestone, McDonald’s, P&G, GE, Omega, Samsung, Panasonic, Dow, Visa Card, and Atos Origin. Currently GLM is tracking some eleven Non-affiliated Marketers competing against the Top Sponsors, including: IBM Global Services, Siemens AG, Pepsi, Nike, DuPont, Starbucks, Red Bull, Rolex, Philips, Unilever, and Subway, among others.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strict regulations in place to protect its official international partners and prevent ambushing official Olympic partners and sponsors, such as Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter which prohibits athletes working with non-affiliated marketers during the Games, though there are reports that the rule is being modified for RIO.
Methodology. Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 350,000 print and electronic news media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) as they emerge. The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.
For more information call +1.512.801.6823 or email: Info@LanguageMonitor.com.
#####################################################
#####################################################
Zika Virus’ Growing Impact on the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics
First Independant Measurement of the Impact of the Zika Virus on the Rio Games
Impact on the Games Themselves Growing Steadily
Significant Impact on Sponsors Varies by Sponsor
March 22, 2016 Austin, Texas — In the first independant analysis of the impact of the Zika Virus on the Rio Summer Games, the Global Language Monitor (GLM) has found two significant trends:
- There is a significant and growing impact on the Games themselves, and
- There is a greater impact on individual sponsors.
This analysis is part of GLM’s longitudinal study stretching back to the Summer Games in Beijing (2008) and forward to the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The ongoing study uses GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) to track how often brand names were linked to the Olympics in global print and electronic media and social networks.
When tracking non-branded entities, such as the Zika Virus, GLM uses a slightly modified variation of the BAI called the Entity Tracking Index (EAI).
The graphic below shows the increasing Zika Virus’ Entity Tracking Index (EAI) numbers over the last six weeks.
Below is a different view of the Zika Virus’ Entity Tracking Index (EAI) numbers over the last six weeks.
“Of particular interest is the wide variation found in the EAIs between Major Sponsors.
“When tracking brand equity, the early numbers provide strong indicators of actual performance during the Games, providing a snapshop of the intense battle already being waged between the Official Olympic Sponsors and the Non-affiliated Marketers, also called Ambush Marketers or Ambushers,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief world Analyst of the Global Language Monitor.
“With the EAI, we are masking the sponsors’ numbers at this point, though these are available immediately by subscription to our service by the sponsor.”
Request the EAI analysis for your organization now: info@LanguageMonitor.com or call +1.512.801.6823 .
The customized report is available with individual details for your sponsorship; the report will be delivered to you within 24 hours of receipt of your order.
For the Rio Summer Games 2016 there are eleven Official Top Sponsors:
Coca-cola, Bridgestone, McDonald’s, P&G, GE, Omega, Samsung, Panasonic, Dow, Visa Card, and Atos Origin. Currently GLM is tracking some eleven Non-affiliated Marketers competing against the Top Sponsors, including: IBM Global Services, Siemens AG, Pepsi, Nike, DuPont, Starbucks, Red Bull, Rolex, Philips, Unilever, and Subway, among others.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has strict regulations in place to protect its official international partners and prevent ambushing official Olympic partners and sponsors, such as Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter which prohibits athletes working with non-affiliated marketers during the Games, though there are reports that the rule is being modified for RIO.
Methodology. Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 350,000 print and electronic news media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) as they emerge. The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.
For more information call +1.512.801.6823 or email: Info@LanguageMonitor.com
Nine of 15 Brands Associated with Rio 2016 not Top Olympic Sponsors
New Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) Rankings for RIO 2016 Games
Bridgestone makes a remarkable debut as a Top Sponsor
Nike, though only an Official Supplier, has Clout of Top Sponsor
February 27, 2015 Austin, Texas — Top Olympic Sponsors Coca-Cola, Bridgestone, McDonald’s and GE lead the Marketing Race for the RIO Summer Games according to a new analysis of by the Global Language Monitor (GLM). Among Non-Affiliated Marketers (NAM), the leaders include IBM Global Services, Siemens and Pepsi — with Starbucks and Red Bull firmly in the mix. Nike, though only an Official Supplier, scored squarely in the midst of the Top Partners. GLM used its proprietary Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) to determine these rankings in the “RIO Olympics 2016 Marketing Outlook,” now ready to order. Overall, nine of the top fifteen positions were held by Non-Top Partners, though three of the top five positions were held by Top Sponsors.
GLM Will Track Your Brand Up To and After the Closing Ceremonies, email INFO@lANGUAGEMONITOR.COM or Call +1.512.801.6823.
Among the surprises for the Top Sponsors were a remarkable debut by Bridgestone, currently besting all Top Sponsors save Coke, a strong showing for Nike, and disappointing showings for Samsung and Panasonic.
The report is an on-going longitudinal study stretching back to London and forward to Tokyo 2020. GLM’s BAI tracks how often brand names were linked to the Olympics in global print and electronic media and social networks.
“The importance of these early numbers cannot be underestimated, since they have been found to be strong indicators of actual performance during the Games, themselves,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief world Analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “In fact, the early numbers show an intense battle for position already being waged between the Official Olympic Sponsors and the Non-affiliated Marketers, also called Ambush Marketers or Ambushers.”
Protected: Overall Olympic Brand Affiliation Rankings for London 2012
Olympic (Ambush) Competition Officially Under Way
Ambushers Leading Sponsors 33-17
.
Billions of Dollars in Brand Equity at Stake
AUSTIN, Texas. July 18, 2012 — Of the Top Fifty Brands affiliated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games only seventeen are official sponsors. This according to the latest Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) analysis by the Global Language Monitor, the Internet media trend tracking company. The longitudinal study began in July 2011 and tracks the top three tiers of official Olympic sponsorship, as designated by the LOGOC and the IOC.
.
.
.
“Fortunately in the Olympics there is no ‘mercy rule,’ where a winner is declared in a contest to reach twenty-one, when one side scores the first 11 points,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. Of the top official and ‘non-affiliated marketers’ in the current study, the first twelve fall into the non-affiliated category.”
.
Some seventy-five brands are studied including the twenty-five premier official sponsors divided into three tiers: The TOP partners, which pay approximately one hundred million pounds for the privilege, the Official Olympic Partners, and the Official Olympic Sponsors. Together these sponsors pay an estimated 30% of the cost of staging the games.
There are a number of other levels and forms of sponsorship including national sponsorships such as the USOC. The real cost of being a TOP partner ranges from a $500 billion to over a trillion dollar investment to companies that sign on for sponsorships spanning several Olympiads.
For these rankings GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship, all perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
Ambushing by ‘Non-affiliated Marketers’ is more than Michael Phelps pitching sandwiches; it is a years-long effort to create a pseudo-sponsorship to leverage the good-well generated by having the Olympics with one’s brand.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis,ranged from a high of 797.90 (Royal Philips} to a low of 1.50 for VisaCard. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with the event.
.
The Top Twelve (all Ambushers), along with their tiers, are Listed below:
| 1 | Royal Philips | TOP-A |
| 2 | CVC Capital | OOP-A |
| 3 | ExxonMobil | OOP-A |
| 4 | Manpower | OOS-A |
| 5 | Schroders | OOP-A |
| 6 | IBM Global | TOP-A |
| 7 | E ON Energy | OOP-A |
| 8 | KPMG | OOS-A |
| 9 | Deutsche Telekom | OOP-A |
| 10 | BASF | TOP-A |
| 11 | EI DuPont | TOP-A |
| 12 | Cable & Wireless | OOP-A |
.
As you can see for the above rankings, Business-to-Business brands are being subjected to the sames ambush marketing forces as B2C marketers. ‘
Royal Philips is crushing GE by over 20:1 margin; ExxonMobil bests BP by a similar margin; and BASF and DuPont are both striding past Dow.
The Top Ten Official Sponsors ranked from No. 13 to No. 39 overall. They are listed below, along with their tiers.
,
| 1 | BT Group | OOP |
| 2 | Cadbury | OOS |
| 3 | BMW | OOP |
| 4 | Adidas | OOP |
| 5 | Panasonic | TOP |
| 6 | McDonald;s | TOP |
| 7 | Coca-Cola | TOP |
| 8 | UPS | OOS |
| 9 | P&G | TOP |
| 10 | EDF energy | OOP |
| 11 | Arcelor Mittal | OOS |
| 12 | Samsung | TOP |
.
Though listed at the top official sponsor, the BT group actually ranks behind both Deutsche Telekom and Cable&Wireless.
Cadbury, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are doing quite well for their investments in spite of the efforts to derail their sponsorships on the grounds of their contributing to a so-called ‘obesogenic’ environment. Adidas is currently doubling Nike’s number. P&G continues to excel with their ‘Moms’ campaign. Arcelor Mittal is a surprise standout for a company previously little known to the public.
GLM has been measuring the effects of Ambush marketing on the Olympic Movement for the last three Olympiads, in the process accumulating perhaps the most extensive database of its kind. For London 2012, GLM began tracking the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games. For more information, call +1.512.801.6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or click on www.LanguageMonitor.com
Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate
Olympic Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate London 2012
Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops Coke, Adidas, and BA
Austin, Texas. Weekend May 4-6, 2012. Ambush Marketers continue to dominate the run-up to the London Summer Games. In fact ‘non-affiliated marketers’ took 27 of the top 50 spots measuring effective brand activation by the Global Language Monitor’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI).
This despite the recent tightening of the rules by the IOC, The GLM BAI rankings are not simply a matter of pride or bragging rights but rather a battle for brand equity and the consumer’s mind and the billions of dollars committed to the IOC, which are primarily used to fund the Games.
.
“The Olympic movement it is not immune to the historic shifts in communications affecting all institutions worldwide,” said Paul JJ Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor. “The seemingly all-pervasive media ensure that the flow of information can be stopped neither by national boundaries nor institutional gatekeepers. There is no reason to think that marketing activities are immune from such forces. In fact, marketing has been one of the foremost purveyors of new media technology.”
For these rankings GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.
GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on May 1, 2012.
With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
To schedule a confidential consultation, call +1.512.801.6823.
For these rankings, encompassing the first quarter of 2012, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The top findings include:
- McDonald’s is in a tough fight, ranking behind Subway and Pizza Hut, but beating KFC.
- Ambusher Nike leads Partner Adidas by a wide margin.
- British Airways trails ambushers Lufthansa, United and Air France in the rankings.
- Royal Philip outpaced ever-strong GE.
- P&G continues to crush ambush competitors as it did in Vancouver.
- Ambusher Ericsson Over Supporter Cisco by a 3:1 margin.
The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games
One interesting side note is that even the Summer Games are encountering the Duchess Effect. The GLM BAI analysis showed that when linked with London 2012, Kate Middleton had a closer brand affiliation than a number of top sponsors including Coke, Adidas, BA and Panasonic, among others.
This again demonstrates the power of the ‘Kate Middleton Brand’. A Tier 1 Olympic sponsor pays about $160 million for the privilege, plus the attendant advertising fees promoting the relationship that can cost upwards of $500 million over the four-year arrangement. This would suggest that the Kate Middleton Brand could be valued at nearly a billion dollars or more, just in relationship to Summer Games.
..
The Top Ten Official Olympic Sponsors by BAI are listed below.
| 1 | Arcelor Mittal | Supporter |
| 2 | EDF energy | Partner |
| 3 | BT Group | Partner |
| 4 | Thomas Cook | Supporter |
| 5 | UPS | Supporter |
| 6 | Lloyds TSB | Partner |
| 7 | Cadbury | Supporter |
| 8 | BP | Partner |
| 9 | P&G | IOC |
| 10 | ATOS | IOC |
..
The Top Ten non-Olympic Affiliated Marketers by BAI are listed below.
| 1 | Centrica | AMB OP |
| 2 | Eon Energy UK | AMB OP |
| 3 | Barclaycard | AMB IOC |
| 4 | Schroders | AMB OP |
| 5 | Royal Philips | AMB IOC |
| 6 | EI DuPont | AMB IOC |
| 7 | Kraft | AMB SUP |
| 8 | Ericsson Comm | AMB SUP |
| 9 | Subway | AMB IOC |
| 10 | Lufthansa | AMB OP |
.
The Top Twenty Combined Olympic Sponsors and Non-Affiliated Marketers Ranked by BAI.
| 1 | Arcelor Mittal | Supporter |
| 2 | EDF energy | Partner |
| 3 | BT Group | Partner |
| 4 | Centrica | AMB OP |
| 5 | Eon Energy UK | AMB OP |
| 6 | Thomas Cook | Supporter |
| 7 | Barclaycard | AMB IOC |
| 8 | UPS | Supporter |
| 9 | Schroders | AMB OP |
| 10 | Lloyds TSB | Partner |
| 11 | Cadbury | Supporter |
| 12 | BP | Partner |
| 13 | Royal Philips | AMB IOC |
| 14 | P&G | IOC |
| 15 | ATOS | IOC |
| 16 | EI DuPont | AMB IOC |
| 17 | Kraft | AMB SUP |
| 18 | Ericsson Comm | AMB SUP |
| 19 | Subway | AMB IOC |
| 20 | Lufthansa | AMB OP |
.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.
GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on March 31, 2012.
With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com
About Global Language Monitor: ”We Tell You What the Web is Thinking”
Founded in Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas-based GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language.
GLM employs proprietary ‘algorithmic methodologies’ such as the NarrativeTracker for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time.
NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 175,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com
Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops London Olympics Sponsors in New Brand Affiliation Study
The Duchess Effect Meets the London Olympics
‘
Kate previously helps London achieve Top Global Fashion Capital status
… after toppling Lady Gaga for Top Fashion Buzzword
Austin, Texas. May 17, 2012 . The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games, indeed. According to the Global Language Monitor’s London 2012 Ambush Marketing May 15 Update, even the Summer Games are encountering the Duchess Effect. The GLM Brand Affiliation Index (BAI), when linked with London 2012, Kate Middleton had a closer brand affiliation that a number of top sponsors including Coke, Adidas, BA and Panasonic, among others.
This again demonstrates the power of the ‘Kate Middleton Brand’. A Tier 1 Olympic sponsor pays about $160 million for the privilege, plus the attendant advertising fees promoting the relationship that can cost upwards of $500 million over the four-year arrangement.
This would suggest that the Kate Middleton Brand could be valued at nearly a billion dollars or more, just in relationship to Summer Games.
“This can be viewed as a two-edged sword for Sebastian Coe and the International Olympic Committee (IOC),” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst for the Global Language Monitor.
“On the one hand, the Duchess of Cambridge and her husband, are Olympic Ambassadors; on the other hand the Kate Middleton ‘brand scores’ higher that nearly half the paying sponsors, such as, Coke, Adidas, and BA, among many others.”
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
Earlier this year, the former Kate Middleton has already helped propel London to the Top Global Fashion Capital ranking for 2011 and was named the Top Fashion Buzzword for 2012 topping even Lady Gaga, the previous year’s winner.
The Official Olympic Mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, fashioned from drops of steel, appear to pose little threat to Kate’s reign.
For these rankings, concluded on May 1, 2012, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
GLM has been tracking the Olympics since the Athens Games in 2004 and ambush marketing since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began tracking the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011.
.
GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
.
About Global Language Monitor: “We Tell You What the Web is Thinking”
Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 May 15 Update report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com.
Olympic Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate London 2012
Nike over Adidas; BA Trails Three Competitors; Subway and Pizza Hut Top McDonald’s
Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops Coke, Adidas, and BA
Austin, Texas. Weekend May 4-6, 2012. Ambush Marketers continue to dominate the run-up to the London Summer Games. In fact ‘non-affiliated marketers’ took 27 of the top 50 spots measuring effective brand activation by the Global Language Monitor’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI).
This despite the recent tightening of the rules by the IOC, The GLM BAI rankings are not simply a matter of pride or bragging rights but rather a battle for brand equity and the consumer’s mind and the billions of dollars committed to the IOC, which are primarily used to fund the Games.
.
“The Olympic movement it is not immune to the historic shifts in communications affecting all institutions worldwide,” said Paul JJ Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor. “The seemingly all-pervasive media ensure that the flow of information can be stopped neither by national boundaries nor institutional gatekeepers. There is no reason to think that marketing activities are immune from such forces. In fact, marketing has been one of the foremost purveyors of new media technology.”
For these rankings GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.
GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on May 1, 2012.
With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
To schedule a confidential consultation, call +1.512.801.6823.
For these rankings, encompassing the first quarter of 2012, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.
All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.
The top findings include:
- McDonald’s is in a tough fight, ranking behind Subway and Pizza Hut, but beating KFC.
- Ambusher Nike leads Partner Adidas by a wide margin.
- British Airways trails ambushers Lufthansa, United and Air France in the rankings.
- Royal Philip outpaced ever-strong GE.
- P&G continues to crush ambush competitors as it did in Vancouver.
- Ambusher Ericsson Over Supporter Cisco by a 3:1 margin.
The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games
One interesting side note is that even the Summer Games are encountering the Duchess Effect. The GLM BAI analysis showed that when linked with London 2012, Kate Middleton had a closer brand affiliation than a number of top sponsors including Coke, Adidas, BA and Panasonic, among others.
This again demonstrates the power of the ‘Kate Middleton Brand’. A Tier 1 Olympic sponsor pays about $160 million for the privilege, plus the attendant advertising fees promoting the relationship that can cost upwards of $500 million over the four-year arrangement. This would suggest that the Kate Middleton Brand could be valued at nearly a billion dollars or more, just in relationship to Summer Games.
..
The Top Ten Official Olympic Sponsors by BAI are listed below.
| 1 | Arcelor Mittal | Supporter |
| 2 | EDF energy | Partner |
| 3 | BT Group | Partner |
| 4 | Thomas Cook | Supporter |
| 5 | UPS | Supporter |
| 6 | Lloyds TSB | Partner |
| 7 | Cadbury | Supporter |
| 8 | BP | Partner |
| 9 | P&G | IOC |
| 10 | ATOS | IOC |
..
The Top Ten non-Olympic Affiliated Marketers by BAI are listed below.
| 1 | Centrica | AMB OP |
| 2 | Eon Energy UK | AMB OP |
| 3 | Barclaycard | AMB IOC |
| 4 | Schroders | AMB OP |
| 5 | Royal Philips | AMB IOC |
| 6 | EI DuPont | AMB IOC |
| 7 | Kraft | AMB SUP |
| 8 | Ericsson Comm | AMB SUP |
| 9 | Subway | AMB IOC |
| 10 | Lufthansa | AMB OP |
.
The Top Twenty Combined Olympic Sponsors and Non-Affiliated Marketers Ranked by BAI.
| 1 | Arcelor Mittal | Supporter |
| 2 | EDF energy | Partner |
| 3 | BT Group | Partner |
| 4 | Centrica | AMB OP |
| 5 | Eon Energy UK | AMB OP |
| 6 | Thomas Cook | Supporter |
| 7 | Barclaycard | AMB IOC |
| 8 | UPS | Supporter |
| 9 | Schroders | AMB OP |
| 10 | Lloyds TSB | Partner |
| 11 | Cadbury | Supporter |
| 12 | BP | Partner |
| 13 | Royal Philips | AMB IOC |
| 14 | P&G | IOC |
| 15 | ATOS | IOC |
| 16 | EI DuPont | AMB IOC |
| 17 | Kraft | AMB SUP |
| 18 | Ericsson Comm | AMB SUP |
| 19 | Subway | AMB IOC |
| 20 | Lufthansa | AMB OP |
.
The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.
GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on March 31, 2012.
With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.
The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com
About Global Language Monitor: “We Tell You What the Web is Thinking”
Founded in Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas-based GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language.
GLM employs proprietary ‘algorithmic methodologies’ such as the NarrativeTracker for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time.
NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 175,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com
Top “Ambush Marketers” For London Olympics 196 Days Out
Top “Ambush Marketers” For London Olympics: KFC, IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike among Leaders
Non-sponsors Continue to Rank High on Brand Affiliation Index (BAI)
Austin, Texas, January 12, 2012. KFC, IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike were among the Top “Ambush Marketers” for the London 2012 Olympics as ranked by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the Internet and Media Trend Tracking Company. In the rankings, encompassing Q3 and Q4 of 2011, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor as well as those of their primary competitors.
“Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games — without the benefit of official sponsorship. However, all perceived Olympic sponsors according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing Index, said Paul JJ Payack; president of the Austin, Texas based Global Language Monitor. “There is more than pride at stake, since the official sponsors generate some 30% of the revenue needed to stage the Games.”
There are twenty-five top official Olympic sponsors divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.
Measuring each tier against their ambushers, GLM has found that for the second half of 2011, each tier of Ambushers beats their legitimate competitors according to the Tier’s Q4 Brand Affiliation Index.
Q4 BAI
Worldwide Partner-A 30.09
Worldwide Partner
25.39
Official Sponsor-A
55.66
Official Sponsor
52.67
Official Partner-A
50.42
Official Partner
16.38
Among Worldwide Partners, Coca-Cola, DOW, and P&G scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Omega and Coca-Cola both improved their BAIs by some 350%, over the last half of 2011. Among Worldwide Partner Ambushers, IBM Global Services, Royal Phillips, HP, Barclaycard, and Dell all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, IBM Global Services, Dell, and KFC all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.
Among Official Partners, EDF Energy, Lloyds TSB, and the BT Group scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Lloyds TSB, the BT Group, and BP, all improved their BAI more than 100% over the last half of 2011. Among Official Partner Ambushers, UnitedContinental (BA), the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB), and all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB), UnitedContinental (BA), and Nike (Adidas) all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.
Among Official Supporters, Arcelor Mittal, UPS, and Cadbury scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Arcelor Mittal, Cadbury, Cisco Systems, and Adecco all improved their BAI more than 200% over the last half of 2011. Among Official Supporter Ambushers, Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal), Kraft (Cadbury), and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Delloite) all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Official Supporter competitors. In terms of movement, Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal), DHL (UPS), and Ericsson (Cisco) improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.
Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. They can also be individualized for any organization. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.551.3627 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.
Trending Top Words of 2012: End-of-World stories, Kate, China, CERN, the Olympics
Global Language Monitor’s Top Words of 2012 projections from current word trends
.
AUSTIN, Texas December 26, 2011 – Trending 2012: Multiple End-of-World scenarios, Kate, China, CERN, the Olympics, The US Elections will dominate word creation and usage in the English language in 2012.
This is according to current word trends in global English being tracked by the Global Language Monitor. Last month, Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor had announced that ‘Occupy’ was the Top Word, ‘Arab Spring’ the Top Phrase and ‘Steve Jobs’ the Top Name of 2011 in its twelfth annual global survey of the English language.
To see the final list Top Words of 2012, go here.
The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion speakers (January 2012 estimate).
.
The Projected Top Words of 2012
,
1. Kate — There are seven billion humans on the planet but sometimes it seems that it’s all about Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton in terms of fashion, celebrity, and the royal line.
.
2. Olympiad — The Greeks measured time by the four-year interval between the Games. Moderns measure it by medal counts, rights fees and billions of eyeballs.
..
3. Middle Kingdom – There is little indication that China’s continuing economic surge will fade from the global media spotlight –or abate.
.
4. Bak’tun — A cycle of 144,000 days in the Maya ‘Long Count’ Calendar. This bak’tun ends on December 21, 2012, also being called the Mayan Apocalypse. (Actually Maya ‘long-count’ calendars stretch hundreds of millions of years into the future, December 21st merely marks the beginning of a new cycle.)
.
5. Solar max — The peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle; in 1854 solar storms melted telegraph wires; what’s in store for our all-pervasive electronic infrastructure?
.
6. The Election — No Obama-mania this time around, more of an Obama-ennui for the November 6 elections.
.
8. Rogue nukes — Iran and North Korea will be the focus of attention here.
.
9. CERN — Neutrons traveling faster than light? The ‘God Particle’? The world ending in a mini-black hole? All these somehow revolve around CERN (The European Center for Nuclear Research). One CERN scientist calculated that the chance of a mini-Black Hole swallowing the Earth is less than 1 in 50,000,000. Somewhat comforting until you realize this is about ten times more likely than winning a national lottery.)
.
10. Global Warming — The earth has been warming since New York was covered under a mountain of ice; what makes 2012 any different?
.
11. Near-Earth Asteroid — Yet another year, another asteroid, another near-miss. (However, one does strike the Earth every one hundred million years or so.)
.
GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time.
NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.
“The year 2012 looks to be a vibrant year for the English language with word creation again driven by events both scheduled and unanticipated. Typically there is an ‘end-of-the-world’ scenario every few years that impacts the English language. This year we will see no fewer than three, including the Maya Apocalypse and the Solar Max,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM.
”Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, will compete with the London Olympics, the economic surge of China, various activities involving the CERN atom smasher, and the US presidential election for Top Word honors, though we always allow for word creation generated from unexpected events such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the Japanese ‘triple disaster’ of 2011.”
Rank / Word / Comments
7. Deficit — Looks like deficit-spending will plague Western democracies for at least the next decade.
12. Europe — United, breaking apart, saving the Euro, abandoning the Euro, with the UK again as an ‘interested onlooker’. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Bonus Phrase: The successor term for ‘Arab Spring’, whatever that might be.
First Ambush Marketing Rankings for London 2012
Subway, Red Bull and Sony among Top “Ambush Marketers” of London 2012 Olympics
Non-sponsors Ranking High on Brand Affiliation Index for London 2012
Austin, Texas, October 10, 2011. Subway, Red Bull and Sony are among the Top “Ambush Marketers” for the London 2012 Olympics.
The Ambush Marketing Rankings for London 2012 were released earlier today by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the Internet and Media Trend Tracking Company. In the rankings, GLM measures the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor as well as those of their primary competitors.
Remember that once you download the London 2012 Ambush Marketing Update, you are entitled to one free hour of consultation from the Ambush Marketing experts from the Global Language Monitor, which has been tracking Branded Affiliations at the Olympics for the last three Olympiads.
Among Worldwide Partners, Samsung, McDonald’s, Visa, Dow and P&G scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for London 2012.
Ambush Marketers can, and often do, out-perform official sponsors. “The term ambush marketing is well understood to mean that an organization knowingly exploits a brand affiliation with the Games — without the benefit of official sponsorship. However, all perceived Olympic sponsors according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for the Ambush Index. GLM measures whatever perceived relationship exists between their organizations and London 2012”, “said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Austin, Texas based Global Language Monitor. “In some cases the brand affiliation is due to successful current or past affiliations, such as that of Lenovo and the Games. Other times, it is because of clever (and legal) marketing efforts that exploit a company’s association with individual Olympians or sports in general, such as Subway ads with an Olympian who has come to symbolize the games themselves, or Red Bull securing naming rights to the Cycling venue.”
Among Worldwide Partners, the companies with the highest Brand Affiliation Index for London 2012 follow:
| Rank | Worldwide Partners | Highest BAI |
| 1. | Samsung | 66.15 |
| 2. | McDonald’s | 62.63 |
| 3. | Visa | 50.60 |
| 4. | Dow | 48.34 |
| 5. | P&G | 47.17 |
Leaders: Highest Brand Affiliation Index
As you can see, Samsung, McDonald’s and the others are tightly tied to the upcoming games.
Not all organizations are faring as well in the BAI. Here a few of the laggards in having their identities tied to London 2012.
| Rank | Worldwide Partners | Lowest BAI |
| 1. | Panasonic | 1.97 |
| 2. | ATOS | 7.81 |
| 3. | Omega | 8.95 |
Laggards: Lowest Brand Affiliation Index
Among some Worldwide Partners, non-sponsor Sony scores a far higher BAI than the Official Worldwide Partner, Panasonic. The same is true for Lenovo and Acer as well as Subway and McDonalds.
| Rank | Non-Sponsor | BAI Score | Sponsor | BAI Score |
| 1. | Sony | 280.75 | Panasonic | 1.97 |
| 2. | Lenovo | 101.00 | Acer | 33.81 |
| 3. | Subway | 145.90 | McDonald’s | 62.63 |
Non-sponsors with Higher BAI than Official Sponsors
Finally, the scores of all organizations are indexed against each other, to better understand the relative Brand Equity rankings of Sponsor vs. Non-sponsor.
So non-sponsor Nike has 13X more brand equity associated with London 2012 than the Official Partner, Adidas, while the Official Partner BA’s three main competitors combined have only a fraction of the associated brand equity associated compared to BA (.33 combined).
The Olympics are still ten months off, enough time for the laggards to improve their performance.
The Rankings will be released monthly up to and following London 2012. Complete information on the monthly Ambush Marketing Rankings for London 2012 Olympics can be delivered as a subscription. For Subscription information call 1.512.801.6823 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.
About Global Language Monitor
Founded in Silicon Valley, GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. GLM employs proprietary ‘algorithmic methodologies’ such as the NarrativeTracker for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media media, as well as new social media sources.
Austin-based Global Language Monitor is the pioneer in web-based media analytics.
For more information, go to www.LanguageMonitor.com, call 1.512.801.6823, or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.
*******
& Almond Shaming Top Global Language Monitor’s Politically (in)Correct Words of 2015" href="https://languagemonitor.com/politically-incorrect/evolve-trigger-almond-shaming-top-global-language-monitors-politically-incorrect-words-of-2015/">Evolve, Trigger & Almond Shaming Top Global Language Monitor’s Politically (in)Correct Words of 2015
For Immediate Release
For more information, call +1 512 815 8836 or email infor@languagemonitor.com
The Eighth Survey of Global English
Austin, Texas, June 10, 2015 — Evolve, Trigger & Almond Shaming Top Global Language Monitor’s Politically (in)Correct Words of 2015. This is the The Global Language Monitor’s eighth survey of Global English, the world’s first, true global language with some 1.83 billion speakers dominating multiple aspects of global communication.
“We label these words and phrases Politically (in)Correct because of the fierce debate they often stir and incur,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor. “People spanning the political spectrum can find the phrases politically ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect’ depending on their particular views”.
The Top (in)Politically Correct Words and Phrases for 2015 include the following:
Arranged by ranking, word or phrase, and Commentary
- Evolve – Interesting evolution of the word ‘flip-flop’ in US Political jargon.More like ‘survival of the fittest,’ have you noticed that politicians never evolve BEFORE voters shift their positions?
- Trigger – Being ‘triggered’ by studying lessons that involve reminders of past traumatic events.
2a. Snowflakes — The impolite term used by other students describing those triggered.
- Almond Shaming – Public Shaming is reinvented as a pressure tactic for all kinds of supposed crimes, now featuring attacks on the almond, which each take a gallon of water to grow. How many gallons of California water have you snacked on today?
- Lying as a greater truth – If the lie you speak, though obviously false, continues to support your greater agenda, then how can it possibly be false?
- Occam’s Razor – A hallmark of scientific inquiry since the Enlightenment, is a plea to explain theories by the simplest possible explanation: entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity. Now considered quaint, illogical and most definitely ‘unscientific’.
- Not Safe – Bring exposed to ‘triggering events’ without specific warnings from the teacher.
- Catharsis – Ancient idea (ideal) that confronting a work of art that contains ‘triggers’ will actually purge one’s triggering emotions.
- ‘Thugs’ — President used ‘thugs’ to describe Baltimore rioters; the word is from the Hindi (and Sanskrit) describing Aryan assassins.
- Anthropogenic warming — The existence of the Bering Land Bridge some 20,000 years ago suggests that the Oceans were some 300 feet lower than today. (That’s about a football field.)
- War on Women — In the Islamic state, women and young girls (6 and older) are stolen from their homes and then sold into sexual slavery or forced into involuntary marriages. And this after watching the beheading of their husbands, sons and brother
The Top Politically Incorrect Terms and Phrases in previous surveys include:
- 2012 ‘His and Her’ (Sweden) – The Swedes once again promoting gender-neutrality, this time its with personal pronouns: him [han in Swedish], her [hon] and he/she [hen].
- 2009: Swine Flu — Various governments and agencies for political motives ranging from protecting pork producers to religious sensitivity insist on calling it by its formal name: influenza A(H1N1)
- 2008: “He Can’t Win” – Hillary Clinton’s coded reference to Barack Obama’s ethnic background as an insurmountable impediment to him winning the US Presidency.
- 2007: Nappy-headed Ho — Radio personality Don Imus’ reference to the women on the Rutgers University championship basketball team.
- 2006: Global Warming Denier – Scientists not denying climate change, but the role of humans in the millennia-old process.
- 2005: Misguided Criminals – A BBC commentator attempts to strip away all emotion from the word ‘terrorist’ by using ‘neutral’ descriptions for those who carried out the 7/7 tube bombings.
- 2004: Master/Slave computer jargon – LA County re-labels computer documentation to remove this alleged slur that has been used for decades describing computer hierarchies.
In December 2014, Austin, Texas-based GLM announced that the Smiley Emoji was the Global English Word of the Year for 2014. Theses Politically (in)Correct are automatically nominated to Global Language Monitor’s 16th Annual Word of the Year #WOTY announcement for Global English at year’s end.
To see the Top Words of 2014, and the Top Words, Phrases, and Names of the 21st century go here.To see the Top Trending words of 2015 thus far go here.
The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion speakers (January 2013 estimate) GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 300,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.
About the Global Language Monitor
In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known. Previous to this Payack was the founding president at yourDictionary.com, and a senior executive for a number of leading high tech companies.
Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.
These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print and electronic media, and the global fashion industry, among others.
Top Politically Correct Buzzwords of 2012
Note: Top Politically Correct Buzzwords of 2014 Announced May 3, 2015
His and Her, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Columbus, Normal and Pet Owner Top List
The Seventh Global Survey
Words and Phrases from the US, UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Sweden and Australia
Austin, Texas, December 7-9 – ‘His and Her’, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Columbus, Normal and Pet Owner have been named the top politically correct words and phrases of the past year according to The Global Language Monitor in its seventh survey of the global media. Rounding out the top ten were Skin Lightening, Black Peter, Holding Down the Fort, Rule of Thumb, and White Males of European Descent. The survey found words and phrases originating from the US, UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Sweden and Australia.
“This year’s survey once again illustrates the difficulty in engaging in public dialogue without offending those on the right, left, center, or various combinations thereof,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of The Global Language Monitor. “We are seeing that continued attempts to remove all bias from language is itself creating an entirely new set of biases.
To see the Top Words of 2012, go here.
The Top Politically Correct Words and Phrases for 2012 include:
- ‘His and Her’ (Sweden) – The Swedes once again promoting gender-neutrality, this time its with personal pronouns: him [han in Swedish], her [hon] and he/she [hen].
- Peanut Butter Sandwich — Deemed by a Portland grade-school principal to be culturally insensitive to children of other cultures.
- Columbus – Explorer’s Day, please. Offensive to those who believe Columbus was the beginning of a 16th c. ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of American Indians, Native Americans, or First Peoples.
- Normal (Australia) — According to new guidelines, normal persons in the presence of people with disabilities should not be referred to as ‘normal’ but rather non-disabled persons.
- Pet Owner — It is becoming less acceptable to ‘own’ animals, pet owners have been transformed into ‘pet guardians’.
- Skin Lightening (India)– A new phenomenon where Indian women lighten their skin to achieve a ‘fair total-body complexion’.
- Black Peter (Zwarte Piet) (Netherlands and Belgium) — The companion of Sinterklaas (Santa Clause), most frequently portrayed by whites in blackface. First introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, Black Peter is now considered by many, a racist stereotype.
- Holding Down the Fort — Possibly offensive to Native Americans, since we all know who the forts was being held down against.
- Rule of Thumb (UK) — Originates from the old English dictum that a husband could not beat his wife or children with any stick wider than his thumb.
- White Males of European Descent –From press accounts, you would think this population segment should soon be placed on the EPA’s endangered species list.
- Handicap (UK) — Aside from the ‘disabled’ reference, ‘handicap can be offensive to beggars, with ‘cap in hand’.
- Christmas — Considered by many under siege until supporters realized that the ‘holidays’ in ‘happy holidays’ originated from ‘holy days’ and the ‘X’ in Xmas is the Greek letter ‘chi,’ representing the first two letters of Christ.
- Prayer — In public the favored word substitute for ‘prayer’ is now ‘thoughts,’ as in ‘keep hen in your thoughts and wishes’.
- Global English – The dominance of the English language worldwide is opposed by those who think it the result of linguistic imperialism or Western Hegemony. Either way, not good.
- Politically Correct – The term politically correct is still politically incorrect (or is it incorrect?).
- Phobes — The Loyal Opposition? How 19th century, of you; opponents are now cast as afraid and fearful, a ‘-phobe’.
- Speech Codes — Limiting free-speech by declaring what is considered offensive off-limits. A hot topic on campus.
- Settled Science — In 1925 it was settled science that rockets would not fly in Outer Space. Beware of Settled Science.
- Dutch Treat — Possibly offensive to the Dutch, since it portrays them as either (take your choice) thrifty (good) or stingy (bad).
- Global Warming/Climate Change — As the temperature continues to rise, the debate continues as to its primary cause. Either phrase is a potential minefield.
The Top Politically Incorrect Terms and Phrases in previous surveys include:
- 2009: Swine Flu — Various governments and agencies for political motives ranging from protecting pork producers to religious sensitivity insist on calling it by its formal name: influenza A(H1N1).
- 2008: “He Can’t Win” – Hillary Clinton’s coded reference to Barack Obama’s ethnic background as an insurmountable impediment to him winning the US Presidency.
- 2007: Nappy-headed Ho — Radio personality Don Imus’ reference to the women on the Rutgers University championship basketball team.
- 2006: Global Warming Denier – Scientists not denying climate change, but the role of humans in the millennia-old process.
- 2005: Misguided Criminals – A BBC commentator attempts to strip away all emotion from the word ‘terrorist’ by using ‘neutral’ descriptions for those who carried out the 7/7 tube bombings.
- 2004: Master/Slave computer jargon – LA County re-labels computer documentation to remove this alleged slur that has been used for decades describing computer hierarchies.
About the Global Language Monitor
Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. Since 2003, GLM has launched a number of innovative products and services monitoring the Internet, the blogosphere, social media as well as the top print and electronic media sites.
For more information, call 1.512.801.6823, email editor@GlobalLanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.
#####################################################
#####################################################
Proof of Literary Greatness?
GLM Comment : We think not. But perhaps an unexpected ability to fashion an English Sentence.
One week ago today, the MoJo DC bureau was consumed by the arrival of Sarah Palin’s emails covering the first half of her half-term as Alaska’s governor. As David Corn detailed, there were plenty of interesting discoveries—a less than chillyattitude toward climate change, for instance, and a sometimes obsessive attitude toward media critics (marginal and otherwise).
While we were poring over the documents, though, Michael McLaughlin of AOL’s Weird News was taking a different approach:
AOL Weird News brought samples to two writing analysts who independently evaluated 24,000 pages of the former governor’s emails. They came back in agreement that Palin composed her messages at an [8.5] level, an excellent score for a chief executive, they said…
“She’s very concise. She gives clear orders. Her sentences and punctuations are logical,” Payack said. “She has much more of a disciplined mind than she’s given credit for.”
Although it’s like comparing apples to oranges, Payack said that famous speeches like Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was a 9.1 and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” oration rated a 8.8 on the scale.
Having read several thousand pages of the Palin emails, I think apples and oranges might be a bit of an understatement here. But there’s also a bit of truth there: Palin’s written communications are noticeably more coherent than her efforts to explain herself verbally (witness: Paul Revere-gate).
John McWhorter on Palin’s ‘remarkedly lucid prose’
Palin’s Emails: What Her Remarkably Lucid Prose Says About the Art of Teaching Writi
- John McWhorter
- June 16, 2011 | 12:00 am
Sarah Palin’s emails are telling us something about remedial writing classes at our universities and colleges, and it’s not what you think. Call her defensive or parochial based on the cache of her spontaneous writings while serving as governor of Alaska, but
something easy to miss is that Palin, in contrast to her meandering, involuted speaking style, is a thoroughly competent writer—more so than a great many people most of us likely know, including college graduates.
Indeed, her facility in writing proves something one might be pardoned for supposing she was exaggerating about in Going Rogue, her autobiography, in which she limns a childhood portrait of herself as a bibliophilic sort of tot:
Reading was a special bond between my mother and me. Mom read aloud to me – poetry by Ogden Nash and the Alaska poet Robert Service, along with snippets of prose …. My siblings were better athletes, cuter and more sociable than I, and the only thing they had to envy about me was the special passion for reading that I shared with our mother.
That’s right, Sarah “you betcha” Palin was, of all things, a bookworm, excited to learn to spell “different” and winning a poetry contest for a poem about Betsy Ross. And as such, it is predictable that her emails would evidence such casually solid command of the language—even if her oral rendition of it is a different matter entirely.
Once we understand that, it leads to some serious questions, as posed by books getting buzz at present such as Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s Academically Adrift and In the Basement of the Ivory Tower by the anonymous “Professor X.” How sensible is our assigning millions of freshmen each year to classes intended to teach them a skill so deeply rooted in unconscious facilitation at an early age?
To get a sense, it helps to see a few of these emails. Because email is written speech, it’s easy to miss artfulness in them. Yet, take this Palin passage: “Even CP has admitted locking up tax rates as Glenn suggests is unacceptable to the legislature, the Alaskan public, this administration, and the Constitution.”
The spelling is flawless—and unlikely to be completely a product of spell-check, which misses errors and often creates others. More to the point, she has an embedded clause (“locking up tax rates”) nested into a main one, with another clause “as Glenn suggests” nested within the embedded one. That’s good old-fashioned grammar school “syntax.” I have known plenty of people with B.A.s who could barely pull it off properly at gunpoint, and several others who would only bother to at gunpoint.
Equally graceful despite its mundane content: “Cowdery telling a kid what’s acceptable and what isn’t inside these four walls??? Puleeeze. A three-pound puppy vs. all the CBC crap that he helped dump around here?” You hear an actual human voice here. We tell some people “I can hear your voice in the way you write”—because it’s unusual for people to be able to “write” themselves. Palin is one of the people who can. [Read More.]
Palinpalooza: GLM analysis for Huffington Post
Sarah Palin’s Emails Written At 8th Grade Level — Better Than Some CEOs
.
.
The huge cache of Sarah Palin’s emails released Friday offered not only a chance to see what she was writing about during her uncompleted term as Alaska’s governor, but also an opportunity to see how well she writes.
AOL Weird News brought samples to two writing analysts who independently evaluated 24,000 pages of the former governor’s emails. They came back in agreement that Palin composed her messages at an eighth-grade level, an excellent score for a chief executive, they said.
“I’m a centrist Democrat, and would have loved to support my hunch that Ms. Palin is illiterate,” said2tor Chief Executive Officer John Katzman.
“However, the emails say something else. Ms. Palin writes emails on her Blackberry at a grade level of 8.5.
“If she were a student and showing me her work, I’d say ‘It’s fine, clear writing,’” he said, admitting that emails he wrote scored lower than Palin’s on the widely used Flesch-Kincaid readability test.
“She came in as a solid communicator,” said Paul J.J. Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor. The emails registered as an 8.2 on his version of the test. “That’s typical for a corporate executive.”
An example of Palin’s strongest writing came on Jul. 17, 2007 in an email to Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell about the controversial Gravina Island Bridge, infamously called the “Bridge to Nowhere.”
“We cant afford it, the Feds won’t pay for it, the general populace isn’t placing it as a high priority … can you diplomatically express that?! Of course we want infrastructure — and this is NOT a “bridge to nowhere” (that is so offensive), but as it stands today with the highest-cost bridge design selected by the Ketchikan community, we need to find a lower-cost alternative [if] a bridge will be built.”
“She’s very concise. She gives clear orders. Her sentences and punctuations are logical,” Payack said. “She has much more of a disciplined mind than she’s given credit for.” [Read More.]
Make No Mistake: Obama’s Favorite Buzzwords
You Don’t Say
This article has been shared from The Daily iPad app
..
‘Make no mistake,’ Obama is a big fan of his own catchphrases
.
BY ANTHONY DECEGLIE AND JENNY MERKINMONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011
.
Statistics gathered by the Global Language Monitor reveal that Obama has said it 2,924 times since he was sworn into office more than two years ago.
.
Other signature Obama sayings include “Here’s the deal” (1,450 times) and “Let me be clear,” (1,066 times). In a nod to the tough financial times he has faced, the president’s fifth most popular motto is “It will not be easy.”
Obama’s reheated rhetoric has recently come under fresh scrutiny. Parts of his speech warning Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to honor the United Nations’ cease-fire pact were strikingly similar to the words spoken by President George W. Bush when he launched military strikes in Afghanistan.
“Our goal is focused. Our cause is just. And our coalition is strong,” Obama said. Bush, nearly a decade earlier: “Your mission is defined. Your objectives are clear. Your goal is just.”
Make no mistake, The Daily is hoping Obama lifts his creative game and “wins the future” (another rhetorical crutch) when it comes to this public speaking deal. Although we understand it will not be easy.
Scale of Top Sayings (Source: The Global Language Monitor, as of March 25)
#1 “Make no mistake” — 2,924 times
#2 “Win the future” — 1,861 times; 9 times in his 2011 State of the Union address
#3 “Here’s the deal” — 1,450 times
$4 “Let me be clear” — 1,066 times
#5 “It will not be easy” — 1,059 times
#####################################################
#####################################################
BBC: An explanation for ‘bunga bunga’
Top Politically Incorrect Words of 2009
Swine Flu, Flush Toilet, Green Revolution, Minority, and Saint named top politically (in)Correct words and phrases of 2009
The Sixth Annual Global Survey
Austin, Texas October 2, 2009 – Swine Flu, Flush Toilet, Green Revolution, Minority, and Saint have been named the top politically (in)Correct words and phrases of the past year according to The Global Language Monitor in its sixth annual survey of the English Language. Rounding out the top ten were the term Politically Correct, Oriental, Founding Fathers, Black Sheep, and Senior Citizen.
“Once again, we are seeing that the attempt to remove all bias from language is itself creating biases of their own,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of The Global Language Monitor. “At this point it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in any form of public dialogue without offending someone’s sensitivities, whether right, left or center.” .
The Top Politically Correct Words and Phrases for 2009 include:
1. Swine Flu – Though hundreds of millions know of the current pandemic as Swine Flu, various governments and agencies for political motives ranging from protecting pork producers to religious sensitivity have chosen to address the virus by its formal name, influenza A(H1N1).
2. Flush Toilet – Flush toilets, toilet paper and toilet use in general are now coming under the watchful eyes of the green movement.
3. Green Revolution – In the 1960s the scientific consensus was the world was on the brink of a ‘Malthusian’ collapse. The Green Revolution changed all that, but now there are those who believe that the world has paid a “stiff price in environmental degradation”.
4. Minority – Talking about minorities is considered insensitive to minorities since this can make them feel, well, like minorities.
5. Saint – In addition to the word ‘saint,’ Oxford University Press has removed words such as ‘bishop,’ ‘chapel,’ and ‘Pentecost’ from the Junior Dictionary.
6. Politically Correct – The term politically correct has, itself, is now politically correct, Be careful how you use it.
7. Oriental – In the US considered offensive to Asians because the term is based on the geographic relationship of Asia from a Western perspective. In Europe (and in most Asian nations), however, Oriental is acceptable.
8. Founding Fathers – Though all the Signers of the American Declaration of Independence were men, this is considered sexists in some quarters. Founders, please.
9. Black Sheep – Though originally referring to the rare birth of a lamb with black fur, now considered ethnically insensitive; the same is true for Black Day, Conversely, terms like White Collar and Whiter than White all can be used to encourage a hierarchical value of skin tone.
10. Senior Citizen – In the name of ‘inclusiveness,’ the UK’s Loughborough University’s suggests replacing senior citizen with ‘older person’.
The Top Politically Incorrect Terms and Phrases for previous years include:
- 2008: “He Can’t Win” – Hillary Clinton’s coded reference to Barack Obama’s ethnic background as an insurmountable impediment to him winning the US Presidency
- 2007: Nappy-headed Ho — Radio personality Don Imus’ reference to the women on the Rutgers University championship basketball team.
- 2006: Global Warming Denier – Scientists not denying climate change, but the role of humans in the millennia-old process.
- 2005: Misguided Criminals – A BBC commentator attempts to strip away all emotion from the word ‘terrorist’ by using ‘neutral’ descriptions for those who carried out the 7/7 tube bombings.
- 2004: Master/Slave computer jargon – LA County re-labels computer documentation to remove this alleged slur that has been used for decades describing computer hierarchies.
The Global Language Monitor uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.
ObamaVision Tops Financial Meltdown as Top TV Word of 2009
.jpg)
The Death of Michael Jackson, the emergence of Susan Boyle and the rise of Hulu.com follow.
The Sixth Annual Analysis by the Global Language Monitor
Austin, Texas, USA. September 24, 2009. The Global Language Monitor today announced that ObamaVision topped the global Financial Meltdown as the most profound influences on the English Language from Television in 2009. These were followed by the death of Michael Jackson, the emergence of Susan Boyle and the rise of Hulu.com. Rounding out the Top Ten were Vampires, Dar Dour, the Wizards of Waverly Place, the phrase, ‘And that’s the way it is,’ and Jiggle. This was the Sixth Annual Analysis by the Global Language Monitor.
“The three screens in the post-Modern home became even more apparent during this television season, with viewers moving seamlessly among their flat screen TV, their laptop, and their 3G phone,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. “This year was dominated by the advent of ObamaVision, to the newest reality show: the Global Financial Meltdown. And then Michael Jackson’s death commandeers the worldwide airways for weeks on end.”
The Top Telewords of the 2009 season with commentary follow:
- ObamaVision — From the primaries to the election to the Inauguration to the middle school classroom: all Obama, all the time, everywhere.
- Financial Meltdown – The most authentic of all reality shows. National economies on the brink! The Bailout! The Bonuses! What surprises can we expect from Season II?
- Michael Jackson – The biggest TV funeral in history. What’s the King of Pop’s next act?
- Susan Boyle – Britain’s surprise spinster singing sensation demonstrated the power of the ‘third screen’.
- Hulu.com – For the first time, GLM is recognizing a website (the much hailed second screen) for broadcasting made-for-television shows over the internet.
- Vampires – All over the tube: ever chaste (with human girls); ever so exotic and popular.
- Dar Dour — The Iraqi TV show that spoofs the futility (and humor) found in the pitfalls (and pratfalls) in the attempt to lead an ordinary life.
- Wizards (from the Wizards of Waverly Place) – Wizards that need a bit of science to maintain their powers.
- “And that’s the way it is” – Walter Cronkite’s shadow over television news spans the decades.
- Jiggle – Before HBO, ABC introduced ‘jiggle’ with Farah Fawcett as one of the main contributors to the concept.
The Top Telewords of previous years were:
2008: Beijing (from the Olympics), ObamaSpeak, followed by ‘facts are stubborn things’, ‘it is what it is,’ and Phelpsian.
2007: “Surge” from the Iraq War political and military strategy, “That’s Hot®” Paris Hilton’s popular expression that is now a registered trademark, and “D’oh!” from The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie.
2006: ‘Truthiness’ and ‘Wikiality’ from the Colbert Show followed by ‘Katrina’, ‘Katie,’ and ‘Dr. McDreamy’.
2005: ‘Refugee’ from the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, followed by ‘Desperation’ from Desperate Housewives and ‘Camp Cupcake’ from the on-going Martha Stewart follies.
2004: “You’re Fired!” edged “Mess O’ Potamia” followed by “Girlie Men,” “God,” and “Wardrobe Malfunction”.
Word Christmas Stronger than Ever in Global Media
Contrary to assumption that “Holiday season” pushing Christmas aside
.
Austin, TX December 23, 2008 (Update) – The Global Language Monitor (www.LanguageMonitor.com) has found that contrary to the assumption that the word Christmas is being pushed aside by more secular or politically neutral terms, ‘Christmas’ is used over 600% more than ‘Holiday Season’ in the global media. GLM compared the use of Christmas along with that of ‘Holiday Season,’ ‘Xmas,’ Hanukah’ in a variety of spellings, and ‘Kwanzaa’. [Read More.]
Since the 2005 season, Christmas has been used in about 85% of all global print and electronic media citations [2008, 84.6%; 2007, 85.5%; 2006, 84.1%; 2005, 84.1%].
In the global media, Christmas accounted for about 84.6% of all citations with Holiday Season following at 12.6%, followed by Xmas (1.5%), Hanukah (0.9%) and Kwanzaa (0.3%).
On the Internet, Christmas led with 80.8% followed by Xmas (10.6%), Holiday Season (5.1%), Hanukah (2.5%), and Kwanzaa (0.7%).
Notes: The X in the word Xmas actually represents the Greek letter CHI, the first two Letters in the name Christ.
Festivus, the fictional holiday created during the hit Seinfeld television series, and Wintervale, sometimes used as a politically neutral substitute for the Christmas season were also measured with negligible results.
GLM tracked the words and phrases in the print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere. The analysis also measured the global print and electronic media on its own. The results follow:
| obal Media | Percentage | Internet | Percentage | |
| Christmas | 84.6% | Christmas | 80.8% | |
| Xmas | 1.5% | Xmas | 10.6% | |
| Holiday Season | 12.6% | Holiday Season | 5.1% | |
| Hannukah | 0.9% | Hannukah | 2.5% | |
| Kwanzaa | 0.3% | Kwanzaa | 0.7% | |
| Festivus | 0.03% | Festivus | 0.1% | |
| Wintervale | 0.00% | Wintervale | 0.001% | |
| Total | 100.0% | Total | 100.0% |
“We thought it would prove interesting to see how the holidays are actually represented in the global media,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of GLM. “We were a bit surprised to see that the much discussed secularization of Christmas in the media was nowhere as widespread as speculated.”
