Akademik

(NAS.car uh.fekt)

n.

The effect produced by an article of clothing, Web site, or other object that displays a large number of logos or advertising images.

Until recently, many doctors' offices had signs showing logos of the dozens of health plans they accepted, usually with an invitation to patients to speak up just in case their plan wasn't listed.

"We call it the NASCAR effect," Breen says.

— "Managed care: Evolution brings myriad choices," Memphis Business Journal, February 25, 2000

The leader in the clubhouse — logo-wise, anyway — seemed to be Paul Azinger. Azinger was cruising the fairways with no fewer than seven logos — three for Callaway and Big Berthas, three for the Haggar clothing company, and one for Florida Hospital — occupying pretty much every prime spot of his person.

The "NASCAR effect" is what some people in golf are only half-jokingly calling the 'logo-ization' of professional golfers.

— Joe Logan, "Golfers tee off with advertising logos — not just clubs anymore," The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 6, 1999

For those not familiar with the term, NASCAR is a U.S.-based association devoted to professional car racing (it's an acronym for National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing). Almost all the cars are garishly festooned with sponsor logos (see nascar.com: http://www.nascar.com/ for examples), hence the underlying meaning of today's phrase.

I was desperately hoping that the execrable term logo-ization in the above citation was a neologism but, alas, it's not. In fact, it turns out that logoization (the more common form) has been around since at least 1984:

"Logoization is only one aspect of a larger issue America will face as it turns toward total reliance on the market."

— Alan Wolfe, "The rise of logo America," The Nation, May 26, 1984