Charity Strine

Australians like to abbreviate things, that much is clear. But nowhere has this been so brutally applied as can be seen in the naming of charity organisations: The Salvation Army are “The Salvos,” St. Vincent de Paul are “Vinnies” and The Good Samartians are either “The Sammies” or just “Sammies.” What is interesting is that at some time all of these organisations have taken on the abbreviation and run with it. The Salvation Army (salvos.org.au/) uses its catchphrase “Thank God for the Salvos” in the majority of its print and tv advertising and St. Vincent de Paul (vinnies.org.au) resale shops are branded as Vinnies.

So, three questions. When did this start? Can anyone remember a time when the Salvos (Sammies/Vinnies et. al) weren’t the Salvos? Was it a result of a careful rebranding when the marketing suits realised that more people recognised the slang than the full name or just something that happened organically? And does this happen a lot in other countries? Can you think of an example of a company or service that has started business using a full name and some time later rebranded to take onboard a slang name to reflect general usage?

Posted in Oz on Sunday January 7, 2007.