A Tsunami By Any Other Name

By Jeremy Caplan

What's in a name? A wave of bad luck, if you're Toyota. A year ago, the company's Canadian division announced plans to call one of its new models the Celica Tsunami. The car's tag line: "The new wave of bold style." The sporty coupe was even offered in a dark color dubbed "thunder cloud." But shortly after a real tsunami devastated Asia, the company realized it could face a storm of bad publicity. Toyota pulled its Tsunami ads and has quietly changed the car's name to the Celica Sport Package.

Other businesses are facing similar conundrums. Several seafood restaurants around the country find themselves saddled with a name that once sounded chic but now seems tasteless. At the Tsunami Restaurant in West Palm Beach, Fla., patrons used to ask what a tsunami was. Now managers fear potential diners will assume the restaurant was named for the disaster. But after two years of marketing the restaurant's name, the managers aren't eager to change it. Instead, they're sponsoring happy-hour fund raisers for UNICEF.

Some businesses have had an easier time making the call. In Ohio, Cleveland's Dover Lake Waterpark had a Tsunami pool, which didn't seem quite so inviting after the tragedy. Shortly after the disaster, it was rechristened Whitecap. --By Jeremy Caplan