grammatical number - Parenthetical plural of unique examples

Sometimes media announcers, especially sports and business reporters, will make their examples plural, or parenthetically plural, even though those examples are obviously unique. For example, an NPR announcer recently referred to
"The Googles and the Apples," When citing very large Silicon Valley firms, like only Google and Apple can be. Sports announcers will often make players names plural, when citing them as examples of one thing or another, even though the players are obviously one of a kind. Is there a name for this behavior, and is it correct in any way?

• Next word choice - Professional ways of saying "to know something"
• Previous lord of the rings - Why did the Witch King wait till the gate was broken before entering Minas Tirith?