Bit silly to say one of the reasons they are ditching Watchtower because of connotations with a prison. My whole life as a JW I never suspected or heard of such a connotation.
THE CURRENT FADING OF BRAND NAME "THE WATCHTOWER"
by steve2 48 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Phizzy
They are without doubt going through a slow re-branding.
The name Watchtower will be dropped from any public Magazine, and JW.Org wil be the new parlance, no more will any speak of "the Society", it will always be "Jehovah's Organisation".
What we need to do is positively to associate JW.Org with the scandals, so if writing to the press, or in conversation with the Public, refer to the JW Organisation, "you may have seen their web-site JW.Org, that's them......"
We can in time undermine the re-branding, and any major effect the web-site may have had on recruitment.
-
designs
Oh look I got shiny new shoes!
-
hamsterbait
Dis-member:
Ten, surely??
-
steve2
It intrigues me that, sometime in the 20th century, completely out of view of "The Watch Tower Society", architects of state penitentiaries started to use the word "watchtower" to denote lookouts within the system whose express function was to monitor incarcerated souls. What an innocently priceless transformation in imagery occurred in worldly quarters in which complex prison surveillance systems soon came to be encapsulated by a once outward looking name, the watchtower. Words constantly change their meanings, some very slowly but others surprisingly swiftly - yet few have more rapidly acquired more pejorative meanings than that for watchtowers - a marvellously apt transformation denoting constant surveillance of imprisoned subjects.
-
-
Mum
Is it like when Kentucky Fried Chicken started calling itself KFC?
-
DesirousOfChange
I don't think they'll ever drop "Watchtower". It's their flagship.
I think it's simply the case that "JW" is universal for the use on the internet.
The name "Watchtower" is English language only and is translated even on the cover of the magazines.
(I suspect that "TIME" or "LOOK" is not translated.)
Additionally, many people who would have interest in Jehovah's Witnesses would have difficulty spelling either of those words. Can you imagine them typing in "jahovaswittness" or whatever combination of wrong characters that would result in a Google search, something the WT would surely prefer to avoid.
I think they're proud of their 100+ year history of the Watchtower.
JMO
Doc
-
stuckinarut2
What a shame they didnt go with JW.NET
-
stuckinarut2
I was thinking...it was drummed into us as kids that we were never to be referred to as "JW's" (pronounced "jdubs")
As aside point, we were never to say "congs" or "mino's" or any such shortening... All disrespectful you see......
But now, the next generation will happily be referred to as "JW.ORGs"....