Talk:Standee

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On 10 June 2025, it was proposed that this article be moved. The result of the discussion was not moved.

Expanding definition

Hope there is no objection to my taking the liberty of expanding this with a 'History' section; the 'standee', or life-size point-of-sale figurine is a phenomenon in merchandising that precedes their use in movie advertising and inclusion of that history adds context to this article. Jamesmcardle^(talk) 04:27, 18 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Article title/alternative names

At present (current version at time of posting), the lead sentence reads:

A standee is an American term for a large self-standing display promoting a movie, product or event, or point-of-sale advertising, often in the form of a life-size cut-out figure.

From my reading of WP:REFERS and WP:ISATERMFOR, the framing of this sentence as an explanation of the meaning of the term standee is against the WP:NOTDICT policy, so I am going to reword the sentence.

However, looking into this made me wonder about the WP:COMMONNAME usage of the term standee as opposed to, for instance, cardboard cutout. A Google Books Ngram Viewer comparison between the terms standee, cardboard cut-out and cardboard cutout as nouns (here) shows that usage of cardboard cutout is significantly more common. Also, neither Merriam-Webster,^[1] the New Oxford American Dictionary,^[2] nor the Oxford Dictionary of English^[3] actually list this definition of the noun standee. Many of the 'Recent Examples on the Web' listed automatically by Merriam-Webster are examples of this usage, but this only shows that the use of standee to mean "cardboard cutout" may be more frequent than the use of standee to mean "standing passenger", not that standee is the most commonly used term for a cardboard cutout.

I'm posting this here rather than opening a move request, as I'm not sure which title the article could/should be moved to, and an RM might be unnecessary if consensus can be reached on the talk page.

References

^ "standee". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun : a standing person : one who occupies standing room
^ Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg, Christine A., eds. (2015). "standee". New Oxford American Dictionary (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199891535. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who stands, especially in a passenger vehicle when all the seats are occupied or at a performance or sporting event.
^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2015). "standee". Oxford Dictionary of English (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727665. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who is standing rather than seated, especially in a passenger vehicle.

Pineapple Storage (talk) 16:53, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 10 June 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: not moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) -- Maddy from Celeste (WAVEDASH) 16:07, 9 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Standee → ? – Possible new titles include Cardboard cutout, Cardboard cut-out, etc. (I'm open to other suggestions!) I raised WP:COMMONNAME concerns on the article's talk page last month, but as there have been no replies, I'm bringing it here. A Google Books Ngram Viewer comparison between the terms standee, cardboard cut-out and cardboard cutout as nouns (here) shows that usage of cardboard cutout is significantly more common. Also, even though the article previously claimed that standee was an American term, neither Merriam-Webster,^[1] the New Oxford American Dictionary,^[2] nor the Oxford Dictionary of English^[3] actually list this definition of the noun standee. (Many of the 'Recent Examples on the Web' listed automatically by Merriam-Webster are examples of this usage, but this only shows that the use of standee to mean "cardboard cutout" may be more frequent than the use of standee to mean "standing passenger", not that standee is the most commonly used term for a cardboard cutout.) As noted in the article, it's true that They are typically made of foam-board; if the title were changed to include "cardboard", it would be easy to expand this sentence to (eg.) Despite their common name, they are typically made of foam-board, to explain the discrepancy. I'm interested to hear what others think on this!

References

^ "standee". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun : a standing person : one who occupies standing room
^ Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg, Christine A., eds. (2015). "standee". New Oxford American Dictionary (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199891535. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who stands, especially in a passenger vehicle when all the seats are occupied or at a performance or sporting event.
^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2015). "standee". Oxford Dictionary of English (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727665. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who is standing rather than seated, especially in a passenger vehicle.

Pineapple Storage (talk) 01:04, 10 June 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. Bensci54 (talk) 16:05, 17 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Cutout by itself appears common per sources referenced in the article and a cursory Google search. The problem is, I have no idea how to disambiguate it. Cardboard cutout provides natural disambiguation but if they aren't actually made of cardboard, this doesn't seem appropriate. Per the article, it appears cutouts may be a type of standee, where the latter term can refer to similar types of displays. (Or is a standee a type of cutout?) I can't tell if the title is broken and I don't have a good solution. Interesting problem. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 00:52, 11 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, this does seem to be a surprisingly knotty issue! I did a quick search online, and most results for search strings with the keyword "standee" on Google Scholar relate to standing passengers on public transport; some results are also related to construction, as the term appears to have another definition to do with concrete (per this abstract). A Google Search for "history of standees" produces the article for Standee as the first result, with the second being the article for Photo stand-in (yet another potential usage of "cutout"/"cardboard cutout" that hadn't occurred to me!). Searches for "cardboard cut-outs" and "history of cardboard cut-outs" produced more results relating to the subject of Standee, but as you pointed out, "cutout" is commonly used by itself to refer to the same thing, and "life-size cutout" is also frequently used (but this doesn't feel like it would be a good title, as not all cutouts/"standees" are life-size).

I've also just realised that in the lead of Standee, the wikilink for "foam-board" is actually piped to Paperboard (which, according to that article, is sometimes referred to as cardboard, which is a generic, lay term used to refer to any heavy paper pulp–based board) rather than a redirect via foamboard to foamcore. Apart from that second sentence of the lead, there's no further discussion in the article of the materials typically used to make the cutouts. I found this article which says actual people wouldn’t be in there, but the cardboard versions of them could be. Or, to be more accurate, Correx versions -- a material more similar to a yard sign than a child’s science fair project. Apparently, according to this definition, Correx is a brand name for a type of corrugated plastic board made from high-impact PVC free polypropylene resin. It's also commonly referred to as corrugated plastic or corriboard. It has a structure similar to cardboard, consisting of a gridded flute core sandwiched between two flat layers which can be printed on. This article also notes the difference from the cardboard used in packaging, but nonetheless refers to them as "cardboard cutouts".

From my perspective, I think moving the article to Cardboard cutout (listing alternative names in the first sentence, and later clarifying that a standee is a cutout that stands up by itself, and that not all cutouts are made out of cardboard in the strictest sense) might be acceptable, but I'm far from confident that this is the best way forward. Pineapple Storage (talk) 17:57, 13 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

My sense is that standee and (cardboard) cutout are largely synonymous but I have too much doubt. I'm certainly not confident about adding definitions or other content to the article myself. A Google News search turns up lots of uses of standee for largely promotional purposes that align with the subject of this article, not the older definition. It appears they get a lot of coverage in media geared at certain fandoms, like comics and superhero movies and other films. There's coverage like this and this where I don't know if I would describe the thing depicted as a cutout necessarily. Perhaps notify the WikiProjects tagged on the Talk page and others related to comics, superheroes, and maybe video games to see if there are editors with more knowledge and better sources. I'd be happy to help with that, if you'd like. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 01:03, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Of course, I'd completely forgotten to notify WikiProjects! Thank you for the reminder, I will do that now. Pineapple Storage (talk) 13:43, 14 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It’s not always necessary, and the tagged pages should get alerts automatically, but may be helpful on this topic! Talk pages may have more watchers and fewer new entries per day than article alerts. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 14:28, 15 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose, as the current title seems to be precisely right. Redirects from alternative less-precise terms are OK too. Dicklyon (talk) 15:53, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

RM notices placed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Sports, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games, Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Film/Comic book films task force, and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Comics. These projects are not listed on the talk page here and as a result were not previously notified. Per my reading up on the topic it appears Standee is relevant to these topic areas. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 18:00, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose move at this time. Support leaving this open for another week or so. While (cardboard) cutout is the more familiar term to me, there's good evidence that standee is used exactly as described in the article and at least some evidence that it is the more accurate term. I remain open to more conclusive arguments in favor of a change. --MYCETEAE 🍄‍🟫—talk 21:59, 5 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Cardboard cutout might be used more, but it's also far more vague, while standee is extremely precise. WP:AINTBROKE and WP:SLOP sums up why this move is unnecessary. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 02:47, 6 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

[1] "standee". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun : a standing person : one who occupies standing room

[2] Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg, Christine A., eds. (2015). "standee". New Oxford American Dictionary (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199891535. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who stands, especially in a passenger vehicle when all the seats are occupied or at a performance or sporting event.

[3] Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2015). "standee". Oxford Dictionary of English (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727665. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who is standing rather than seated, especially in a passenger vehicle.

[4] "standee". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun : a standing person : one who occupies standing room

[5] Stevenson, Angus; Lindberg, Christine A., eds. (2015). "standee". New Oxford American Dictionary (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199891535. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who stands, especially in a passenger vehicle when all the seats are occupied or at a performance or sporting event.

[6] Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2015). "standee". Oxford Dictionary of English (3 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727665. Retrieved 5 May 2025. noun — a person who is standing rather than seated, especially in a passenger vehicle.

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