This is an old video produced by the New York Times but I only stumbled upon it a while back and thought it was not only cleverly put together but also the real story behind it is just as interesting.

The video is about 6 min long and if you haven't seen it I feel it is worth the listen as there is some great acting involved in what was a real disposition.

Now many people might just think that the video above is really funny because obviously we all now know what a photocopier or copy machine is. However, I remember back to my first couple of jobs in High School there was a lot of people there that called any type of copier a 'Xerox'. The term became a verb instead of just a brand because it was so generalized (e.g., Can you xerox this for me?). Fast forward to today Google has done the same thing in search. Most of the time you don't hear people say will you search the internet for it. You hear them say "Why don't you Google it."

What are some other brands that you know of that are used as generic terms or verbs?

Here is some more background on the actual case from the video above if you are curious.