Procter & Gamble wants to trademark online acronyms including WTF and LOL to advertise soap

The consumer products giant wants to use phrases like FML and NBD in its marketing

P&G is the company behind Tide pods (Reuters)

Procter & Gamble has filed trademark applications for a number of popular and widely used internet acronyms, including LOL and WTF.

The consumer products group, which owns a huge number of brands, ranging from Always to Vicks, has filed applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office to trademark FML (f**k my life), LOL (laughing out loud), NBD (no big deal) and WTF (what the f**k).

According to the applications, P&G hopes to use the phrases to advertise a variety of cleaning products, including liquid soap, dishwashing detergents, surface cleaners and air fresheners.

The filings were made by P&G in April of this year, and are still being considered by the US PTO, which has requested clarification from the company, according to trade magazine Ad Age.

Procter & Gamble declined to comment on the applications.

While the company may now be trying to use online millennial culture to promote its goods, one of P&G’s products was previously the unwilling subject of an internet craze known as the Tide Pod Challenge.

Thousands of teenagers risked serious illness and even death by consuming Tide detergent pods, leading US politicians to call for a law requiring P&G to make the laundry products look less appetising.

New York assemblywoman Aravella Simotas said she wrote to the company “urging them to stop making laundry pods that look like candy or else remove the product from store shelves”.

According to her letter, up to 10,570 laundry pod injuries were reported in 2017 and six deaths in people with dementia have been attributed to Tide pods since 2012.