About
Name Brand vs. Great Value refers to a series of images and videos featuring a side-by-side comparison illustrating an obvious discrepancy in quality, similar to Expectation vs. Reality.
Origin
The origin of this meme is unknown, although it follows the format of several previously determined comparison memes, like Expectation vs. Reality and What I watched / What I expected / What I got. The Name Brand vs. Great Value mutation began appearing in posts as early as May 2015.[1]
Great Value is a specific reference to a brand of generic goods carried at Walmart, which is the tier two, or “National Brand Equivalent” of Walmart’s generics.[2] Many online, in forums like Reddit and Yahoo Answers, question if the Great Value brand is of equal quality to name brands.
Spread
On August 15th, 2015, an unofficial Beyoncé fan account on Vine created a video edit titled with the phrase that showed Beyoncé dancing first with her own dancers, then with her dancers and Taylor Swift, which was judged to be inferior. The Vine received over 2.8 million loops as of December 10th, 2015.[3]
Between November 11th and December 10th 2015, the phrase was used over 1,000 times on Twitter.[4][5] It also was used steadily on Reddit[6] and Tumblr.[7]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Twitter – @what_ev_r’s post
[2]Wikipedia – List of Walmart Brands: Great Value
[3]Vine – Beyoncé’s Post
[4]Topsy Analytics- name brand great value
[5]Twitter – name brand great value
[6]Reddit – name brand great value
[7]Tumblr – name brand great value