According to reports, acronyms that are common in text speak, including “WTF”, have been applied to be trademarked by Proctor & Gamble.

If the application is successful then the company would be able to include in its marketing and selling of its products expressions including “LOL” (Laugh Out Loud) and “NBD” (No Big Deal).

Application for the use the acronyms in soap, detergents and air fresheners have bene filed by the global household products company.

It has been reported that the company had applied for getting the acronyms registered as trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office in April.

The products would be sold alongside well known brands such as Febreze, Fairy and Mr Clean.

Apparently, the company is of the opinion that it would be able to persuade those consumers below the age of thirty five years if its products are branded and marketed with the help of the slang that are used for text speak.

And for packaged goods companies, the tech savvy millennials are an important potential consumer group.

According to the statistics portal Statista, the millennials which are the group who are born around the turn of the millennium and often referred to as Generation Y are expected to increase their annual spending to $1.4tr (£1.09tr) by 2020, in the US alone.

But the trademark and patent application by the company ha snot yet been approved and it is “TBD” or To Be Decided.

It is also being predicted that activist investor, Nelson Peltz, who became a member of the board of the company in March this year was behind the change in branding and marketing strategy.

During a television interview earlier in September last year, Peltz had said that the younger customers do not want “one size fits all” brands but products that “they have an emotional attachment to”.

And such consumers could already have such acronyms and words in their mind when they come across or are faced with situations such as a pile of dirty dishes, unwashed socks and a grimy bathroom.

Ad Age was the first to file a report on the applications made by P&G. The report also mentioned that those brands that might have wanted to make use of such words in their marketing campaigns would now face “FOMO” or the text acronym for “Fear of Missing Out”.

No comments in the reports were available from P&G.

(Adapted from BBC.com)