Some famous brands have been buried in recent months and years, partly because their brand names do not align with corporate values, more due to the influence of the so-called cancel culture and the pressure of offended public opinion, and perhaps also the opportunity to simply sell their name as if it were a domain. A large part of them has been revived in a new guise.
Here’s how they looked before and after.
Aunt Jemima
The pancake mix produced by PepsiCo has been renamed from Aunt Jemima to Pearl Milling Company. It appeared on the market under the new name in June 2021.
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Chicos
The Swiss food giant Nestlé no longer sells its sweets in the Australian market under the name Chicos (‘boys’ in Spanish) as they say it has a racist tone. They are now called Cheekies.
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Cleveland Indians
The baseball club erased its old name and logo to show respect for Native Americans. Under pressure from the public, as well as sponsors Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo, the Washington Redskins also had to change their name. They are now called the Washington Football Team.
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Clean & Clear Fairness
Johnson & Johnson is one of the companies removing the words fair and fairness from the names of its products. Due to modern fairness, their Clean & Clear Fairness Skin-whitening Line has disappeared from the Indian market, and Neutrogena’s Fine Fairness line sold in the Middle East and Asia is also being removed.
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Coon
The name of the Australian cheese is changing to Cheer. The management of the Canadian company Saputo, which currently owns the cheese, decided to cut off accusations that the brand was named in a racist joke ninety years ago.
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Plantation Rum
Rum from Barbados produced by the French company Maison Ferrand will receive a new name after an ongoing global discussion. The French realized last year that the word plantation in the rum’s name has painful connotations for some people, so they decided to change it to Planteray rum to avoid any association with slavery.
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Red Skins
Nestlé’s candy is out of step with the times due to ‘red skins’. In Australia, it is now sold under the name Red Ripperz.
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Uncle Ben’s
Mars Inc. has decided to remove the uncle from the name of its world-famous rice. Instead of Uncle Ben’s, it will be called Ben’s Original, and the old image on the packaging will also be removed.
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White Perfect
L’Oréal is eliminating the words fair, light, white, and whitening in solidarity with the black community, the company says. Among the brands that have lost their old name is the White Perfect cream, one of its flagship face creams.
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Zigeuner Sauce
The sauce whose name translates to ‘gypsy sauce’ will no longer be called that as the German company Knorr decided in June last year to rename it to Paprikasauce Ungarische Art (Hungarian paprika sauce).
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The original text was published in Lider’s special edition ‘Brands’ on May 14, 2021.
