Commentary

Anatomy Of A Name Change: ABC Family Goes 'Freeform'

Feel free to blame it on my infinite misunderstanding of all things marketing and advertising, but ABC Family’s plan to change its name to “Freeform” has me puzzled.

Sorry, but I’m just a journalist -- someone who tends to see the world more in basic black and white than in multicolored rainbows. Moreover, as a writer I try to avoid making up new words or applying existing words to new situations. I prefer instead to use words that already exist and whose meanings are more or less widely understood.

Which brings me to the new word that ABC Family has come up with to identify its apparent target audience: Becomers. The company sprung this word on us last week in the press release that went out announcing that ABC Family would become Freeform in January.

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I get it: “Becomers” are people in the midst of becoming something. But it’s an awkward word, not least because it’s not a word. It appears in none of the dictionaries I possess -- which is the standard I still use (probably to my detriment) to determine if a word is really a word.

The word “freeform” also has me scratching my head (something I do a lot). Maybe it’s a consequence of my age, but when I hear the word “freeform,” I imagine something more freewheeling -- i.e., something that is self-consciously disorganized, you might say -- than a cable TV network owned by a media conglomerate that is in the business of scheduling programs and trafficking commercials. Or to put it another way, there will likely be nothing “freeform” about ABC Family unless this network intends to morph into the TV version of FM radio in the ’70s.

In a way, the use of the word “Freeform” here is even more nebulous than the made-up word “becomers,” since you can at least deduce the meaning of “becomers.” As the name of a TV network -- or “brand,” as people like to call everything nowadays -- Freeform is similar to other such network names that would appear to have no concrete grounding in reality: Oxygen, Logo, Nuvo, MSNBC.

“Becomers” is part of a similar mini-trend in which television networks make up new words or phrases to define their audiences. For example, Spike defined its audience at its upfront last March as “the driven.” Pop Network came up with “modern grownups.” Bravo famously made up a word some years back for its audience: “Affluencers” (Meaning what? Affluent people who enjoy the “Real Housewives” shows and influence other affluent people to watch them too?).

To give ABC Family its due, the company took pains in its press release last week to explain what it means by adopting Freeform as its name and Becomers as its audience.

Behold the free-flowing, freeform prose that emanated from a publicity office somewhere at Disney: “The name Freeform speaks to the mindset and attitude of what the channel has defined as Becomers,” the press release said. “Traditionally, Becomers are in high school, college and the decade that follows and are navigating the wonderful, fun, exciting, and scary time in life when you experience the most firsts -- first car, first apartment, first job, first love, first heartbreak -- all the firsts that exists [sic] between who they are and who they want to become.

“Becomers represent a life stage rather than a generation,” the release continued. “Eleven years ago, ABC Family was ahead of the curve when it began super-serving Millennials to become their entertainment staple. Today, nearly 70% of 12-34 year olds are Millennials, but in five years, Millennials will be less than half of the target. Becomers are 69 million strong in the US, with an estimated spending power in the trillions. There are two billion Becomers worldwide.”

And it goes on: “The audience’s identity and experience are fluid as they explore endless possibilities and their passions take shape. Freeform personifies this fluidity and will deliver ideas, forms of content and ways of interacting with the brand. Freeform is inspired by the interconnection between content and audience, media and technology, interactive and linear, life stage and life style and the way Becomers interact with them all.” Methinks the writer of this press release should have quit while he was ahead; this last paragraph reads like gobbledygook. 

Moreover, as the press release points out elsewhere, the network’s lineup of shows will continue to be anchored by stalwarts such as “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Fosters” and “Young and Hungry,” all starting new seasons this winter.

So while the network’s name changes and its audience of becomers reset their life-compasses to blaze new trails of identity, experience, possibilities and passion, the shows -- like the proverbial song -- remain the same.

 

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