Durex
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The brand Durex is used for a number of unrelated products around the world. Most commonly, Durex is the trademarked name for a range of condoms made by UK-based multinational SSL International.
The name, which the London Rubber Company trademarked in 1929, is a portmanteau of "Durability, Reliability, and Excellence", though some people mistake it as being "Durable Latex". [1]
Durex condoms represent around one quarter of the global market for prophylactic sheathes, manufacturing around one billion units per year in 17 factories worldwide. Durex condoms are the most popular brand of condoms in the UK. The Durex range includes nine varieties of latex condom and the Avanti condom, the first male condom made from polyurethane. Polyurethane condoms don't suffer from the "latex rot," and are suited for users who have an allergic reaction to latex.
In August 2007, Durex announced that it expected to launch a new line of condoms that will help men get a firmer erection and increase penis size. The condoms will contain a gel in the tip that dilates arteries and increases blood flow to the penis.[2]
[edit] Other brands
The trade name Durex is also used internationally for a number of unrelated products. A number of comedians, including Jasper Carrott, have written routines exploiting for comic effect the mixups caused by the reuse of the Durex name.
- Durex is a popular brand of adhesive tape manufactured in parts of Latin America (i.e. Mexico) and the USA by 3M. Durex was first introduced in Brazil in 1946 and quickly became one of the most popular brands in the country[3], ultimately becoming a genericized trademark there.
- Also in Mexico, Durex is a brand of socks.
- Durex Steel is a Canadian metal fabricator, now a division of ZCL Composites Inc. Durex Steel is particularly known for their steel aboveground storage tanks.
- The Durex Corporation was an abrasives and adhesives conglomerate, run by a number of North American companies (including 3M) between 1920 and 1950. The corporation was dissolved in 1950, the United States Supreme Court having found it to be an illegal combination under the Sherman Antitrust Act.
- Durex is also a trademark for a "rubber" roof coating manufactured by Palmer Asphalt Company, Bayonne New Jersey. A "prophylactic for your roof" that is "guaranteed not to leak".
- Durex is a brand of home appliances (such as stoves and refrigetators) in Ecuador.
The case of the disparate Durex brands is one of the prime examples cited by international branding specialists for the need for multinational corporations to undertake extensive brand searches to ensure a proposed name does not have an unsuitable meaning or connotation in another culture or language.
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