Presentation of Russian hybrid "people's car" was held in Moscow, on Tuesday, November 9. New product of the Russian automobile industry was called "ё" and its author, chosen among the variety of participants, turned out to be the Belarusian designer Vladimir Tsesler.
«To warm up the situation, the winners of the virtual names contest were congratulated and awarded prizes first. Quite lovely and creative people explained the names «Chariot», «Advance», «27» or «777». And all of a sudden the «ё» cropped up on the screen. You will not believe it, but first a sigh came , followed by the applause. A trick has clearly worked!!!», ONEKSIM group’s spokesman wrote in his blog.
«Trick’s» inventor happened to be not young, but a very impressive man — designer Vladimir Tsesler. When asked about the reasons for such a name, he simply replied: «I saw a car and impulsively exclaimed «ё-ё-ё!» (something like ‘yo-yo-yo!’ in English — Telegraf)… Well, in general, a specific philosophy is encrypted in the brand: «ё» is a single letter that distinguishes the Russian alphabet from all others, besides it is the seventh letter in our ABC. This numeral is usually associated with good luck. And the youth cry «ё-ё-ё!» is a kind of delight and admiration,» he said.
Head of the project’s expert committee Stanislav Naumov said that the brand name is also patriotically loaded. «The company strives to ensure for the Russian letter «ё» to become world’s recognizable symbol and appear not only on the Russian keyboards,» he explained.
The official ideology of «ё» brand creation is also based on the patriotic feelings: «We need a new philosophy in shaping the attitude toward Russian-language brands. A bold, innovative brand is needed to dictate the Russian culture and traditions worldwide, he added. There should be a new name for a new class. And here comes «ё» with its fundamental and ideological essence.»
Apart from the abovementioned information «ё» is:
— frequently used as an emphatic exclamation;
— significant for the texts of high socio-cultural importance;
— related to «you, your» and is likely to be associated with YO!
— a basis for a separate dictionary creation.
By analogy with iPhone, iPod, i-Media, i-Rate, i-Car… «ё» can become an original Russian brand, a new «ё» class, «ё» philosophy. It was a good start to have picked it for outlining the authentic Russian essence of the future cars.
ONEXIM group is pretty optimistic about the future of the «vЁhicle» (as the name of the new russian hybrid city car can be printed in English — Telegraf) and encourages Russian audience to actively play around with the name and come up with more new informal names for the hybrid.
