If you've been to the supermarket lately, you may have noticed a word that's been appearing with increasing frequency -- and no, it's not "Sale." The word is "Classic," and it's fast becoming the most overused term on the consumer landscape, as marketers seek to imbue old brands with a new cachet.

The, um, classic example of this phenomenon is Coke Classic, which emerged in the wake of the mid-'80s New Coke debacle. But while Coke Classic was a face-saving desperation move designed to salvage a disastrous initiative (or, if you believe the conspiracy theorists, a cleverly calculated scheme that unfolded exactly as the Coke brain trust intended), some of the more recent "Classic"-isms are considerably more dubious. Remember those old silver Eveready batteries that you grew up with, the ones with the silhouette of the cat? Alkaline batteries have made them obsolete, but they're still available -- only now they're called Eveready Classic. Bought a package of Saran wrap recently? If so, perhaps you've noted that it's now called Saran Classic -- apparently to distinguish it from Saran With Cling Plus and Saran With Cling Plus Junior (now *there's* a real winner of a brand name).

The increased use of "Classic" is rooted in two developments. First, this is the era of brand extensions, as more and more companies find it safer to spin off variations of existing brands instead of taking the riskier route of developing new ones. In this climate, appending "Classic" onto the base brand serves as a good way of reminding consumers that the base brand is still special, even if it isn't as new or gimmicky as its spin-off extensions. Second, "Classic" is just a good word -- it has echoes of nostalgia and heritage, with no negative connotations. "Classic" has so much going for it, in fact, that we can probably expect to see a lot more of it as brand extensions continue to proliferate. With the Cheerios family now featuring six separate products, for example (for those of you keeping score at home, that would be Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios, Multi-Grain Cheerios, Frosted Cheerios, and Team Cheerios), can Classic Cheerios be far behind? And in case you hadn't noticed, there are now about a jillion different types of Band-Aids -- clear, glow-in-the-dark, anti-bacterial, and so on. Would anyone be surprised if the basic tan strips were rechristened as Band-Aid Classic?

"Classic" isn't the only term bordering on saturation at the moment. "Original" and "Traditional," both of which evoke many of the same qualities as "Classic," are also on the rise. The problem with all of these terms, however -- aside from the overuse factor -- is that they can paint a marketer into some uncomfortable corners. Chex Mix party snacks, for example, come in several flavor varieties, one of which is called Traditional. So when the folks at General Mills recently decided to change the flavor formulations throughout the Chex Mix line, they were left with a product that was "Traditional," even though it also claimed to have a "New Flavor!"

And that, of course, was a classic blunder.