Comment Re:Bribery (Score 1) 773
I hear myself and many of my peers say "grab a soda from the fridge for me." This may, however, be regional in use. Only when I lived in the southeast did 'coke' ever seem like a generic term. In the midwest, the generic is 'pop.'
I don't think I've ever asked someone to xerox something, and everything I knows calls that machine a 'copier.' I don't remember ever working somewhere with a Xerox-brand copier anyway. I think I've heard my grandmother refer to her vacuum cleaner as a 'hoover,' even though it's another brand, but not my parents or any friends/coworkers my age. To me 'xerox' is similar: something old people might say. (I understand 'hoover' is pretty common among the Brits, though.)
There seems to be a definite subset of 25-35-years-olds who are resisting 'google' as a verb. Not that any of these same people would go to anyplace other than google if I suggested they "search the web" for something. My parents and their peers (50-70 age range) seem to have completely adopted 'google' as a verb.
'Kleenex' is hard to argue. I have, however, heard proper southern ladies say "Could you hand me a tissue?" when sitting at the opposite end of a couch from the box of Kleenex. Too bad, since I find Puffs to be the superior tissue. Kleenex brand always seems to flake away paper dust that just makes you keep sneezing.