Ah yes, here we are again. Like we’ve seen with a few businesses recently, a lot of companies have taken some time to reflect on their brand names – and often the worrying history and attachment said names might have with people. It’s become a norm given the racial movement we’re currently living, with Allen’s the latest to make a statement.
Today, via a Facebook announcement, the confectionery brand said that they would be officially changing the names of products Red Skins and Chicos. And you can best believe the Karens (and Kens) across Australia took their chance to defend the righteous names of these products.
In the statement, Allens said they are all “about creating smiles” and that their decision to change the product names was made to “keep creating smiles”. They also said they don’t have an update on the new product names, but they appreciated the “the comments we have received on the need for change”.
Nestlé, the parent company of Allen’s, are moving quickly to change the names – so you can expect things to be done swiftly – here’s hoping. But to my complete shock !! The true snowflake-associates heard their rallying cry, gathered their pitchforks and took to social media to, of course, call out this irrational behaviour.
Far out this is getting beyond a joke
— Tim (@zarby12) June 23, 2020
@10NewsFirstMelb What a joke.. they are lollies, nothing else but Fkn lollies… I guess Washington redskins would be next in line to change their name 🤦🏻♂️
— _fp76_ (@_fp76_) June 23, 2020
Between the official Facebook announcement, and as murmurs made their way onto Twitter, people continued to feel offended about the idea of other people being offended. Shock! Grief! Horror!
And let’s just get one thing out of the way – the flavours don’t seem to be changing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chicos get a bit of a re-design from their current brown child-like style to something else, but Allen’s haven’t mentioned anything about the taste/flavour. By all accounts the products will be continuing, as they are, just with different names. That’s it. A different name.
I’m sure many of you out there, like me, have some school-box nostalgia attached to these lollies. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why these names are seriously offensive. Especially when it comes to Red Skins.
About fucking time they renamed red skins and chicos, frankly. Then when they’ve renamed the lolly that fucking football team can name themselves after the new lolly name for consistent branding.
— Cody found a big stick (@MangoJester) June 23, 2020
I mean not long ago the Red Skins packaging literally featured a Native Indian on it. There’s been plenty of backlash and the current climate has finally made Nestlé make the change. Red Skins is a term Native Indians were subject to during the slave labour era in America – no more than two minutes of research will provide answers.
So seriously, if anyone is upset that these products are changing their name – they need to ask themselves why. The products aren’t really marketed all that much, and this change will act as good PR for them to be honest, because they probably aren’t doing huge sales numbers compared to other products (ie Snakes, Frogs etc).
While I’m going to not go as far as congratulating a company like Nestlé for making a decision like this – at least they’ve acted to some obvious public pressure. If you can bare the comments, check out Allen’s official Facebook announcement below.
