THE advertising firm hired to come up with a new name for the NBC-owned SciFi Channel is now swearing they weren’t the ones who invented Syfy.
The new name is set to take effect in July, but meanwhile has become the butt of a lot of jokes from sci-fi fans for its clumsy look and phonetic relationship to an expression that is universally accepted as the name for other-worldly entertainment.
“While we’d love to take credit for all the branding initiatives our clients take on,” writes Ken Runkel, executive director of Landor Associates, the branding firm hired by Sci Fi. “We just can’t.
“Yes, we worked with the SciFi Channel, and it hired us to consult on the project. However, Syfy was a name generated internally and pre-tested at the channel before our involvement,” he wrote.